3  1822  01152  0749 


LIBRARY^ 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO     . 


UNIVI 


/-k.j 

01152  0749 


..  •> 

V 


A  JAPANESE  BOY 


BY 


NEW  YORK 
HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

1890 


COPYRIGHTED,  1889. 
BY  SHIUKICHI  SHIGEM1. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

MY    BEETHPLACE — MY     GRANDFATHER — TENJINSAX,        7 

CHAPTER  II. 

OLD-FASHIONED     SCHOOL — MY     SCHOOLMASTER — THE 

SCHOOL-HOUSE, U 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE   KITCHEN — DINNER — FOOD,  .  .  .  .  1'J 

CHAPTER  IV. 

GAMES — NEW  SCHOOL — IMITATING  THE  WEST — MOKE 
ABOUT  MY  SCHOOLMASTER — PUNISHMENTS  AT 
SCHOOL, 25 

CHAPTER  Y. 

HATHS — EVENINGS     AT     HOME — JAPANESE     DANCING 

AND   MUSIC, 33 

CHAPTER  VI. 

AMATEUR  ACTORS  AND  REAI,  ACTORS  AND  AC- 
TRESSES— JAPANESE  THEATRE,  .  .  .  .45 

CHAPTER  VII. 

WRESTLING — STORY-TELLERS — PICNIC       AND       PICNIC 

GROUNDS — AN   OLD   CASTLE   AND   A   TRADITION.         57 
3 


4  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

ANGLING — A  PIOUS  OLD  LADY  AND  HER  ADVENT- 
URES,   I'M 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    YAITO — A   WITCH-WOMAN — AUNT    OTSUNE,   MISS 

CHRYSANTHEMUM  AND   MR.    PROSPERITY,      .  .      ~~> 

CHAPTER  X. 

NEW-YEAR'S  DAY — THE  MOCHI-MAKINO — OLD-TIME 
OBSERVANCES, 87 

CHAPTER  XI. 

KITE-FLYING — HOW  I  MADE  MY  KITE— rMY  UNCLE 
AND  HIS  BIO  KITE — OTIIEH  NEW-YEAR  GAMES 
— HOW  WE  END  OUR  NEW-YEAR  HOLIDAYS,  .  !N> 

CHAPTER  XII. 

OTHER  JAPANESE  HOLIDAYS — TANABATA  AND 
1NOKO,  THE  BOYS'  DAYS — THE  SHINTO1STIC  AND 
BUDDHISTIC  ABLUTION  MASS,  ....  10o 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

OUR  PRIEST  AND  BOY-PRIEST — OUR  DOG  GEM — 
SHAKA'S  BIRTHDAY, 112 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

TUK  FESTIVALS  OF  LOCAL  DEITIES — SCHOOL  AGAIN, 
AND  SOME  ACCOUNT  OF  MY  SCHOOL-FELLOWS — 
CONCLUSION,.  121 


PREFATORY  LETTER. 

PROF.  HENRY  W.  FARNAM: 

Dear  Sir: — My  motives  in  writing  this  jejune 
little  volume  are,  as  you  are  aware,  two  : 

1st.  There  seems  to  be  no  story  told  in  this 
country  of  the  Japanese  boy's  life  by  a  Japanese 
boy  himself.  The  following  rambling  sketches  are 
incoherent  and  extremely  meagre,  I  own ;  but  you 
must  remember  that  they  are  a  boy's  talks.  Give 
him  encouragement,  and  he  will  tell  you  more. 

2d.  The  most  important  of  my  reasons  is  my 
desire  to  obtain  the  means  to  prosecute  the  studies 
I  have  taken  up  in  America.  •  Circumstances  have 
obliged  me  to  make  my  own  way  in  this  hard 
world.  If  I  knew  of  a  better  step  I  should  not 
have  resorted  to  an  indiscreet  juvenile  publication 
— a  publication,  moreover,  of  my  own  idle  expe- 
riences, and  in  a  language  the  alphabet  of  which  I 
learned  but  a  few  years  ago. 


(i  I'liKb'ATnHY   LETT  Kit. 

To  you  niy  sincere  acknowledgments  are  due  for 
encouraging  me  to  write  these  pages.  This  kind- 
ness is  but  one  of  many,  of  which  the  public  has 
no  knowledge. 

I  am.  sir, 

Yours  very  truly. 

SHIUKICHI  SHIGEJU. 

NEW  HAVEN,  Or.,  September,  1889. 


A  JAPANESE  BOY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

I  WAS  born  in  a  small  seaport  town  called 
Imabari,  which  is  situated  on  the  western  coast 
of  the  island  of  Shikoku,  the  eastern  of  the 
two  islands  lying  south  of  Hondo.  The  Imabari 
harbor  is  a  miserable  ditch;  at  low  tide  the 
mouth  shows  its  shallow  bottom,  and  one  can 
wade  across.  People  go  there  for  clam-digging. 
Two  or  three  little  streams  empty  their  waters 
into  the  harbor.  A  few  junks  and  a  number  of 
boats  are  always  seen  standing  in  this  pool  of  salt- 
water. In  the  houses  surrounding  it,  mostly 
very  old  and  ramshackle,  are  sold  eatables  and 
provisions,  fishes  are  bought  from  the  boats,  or 
shelter  is  given  to  sailors. 

When  a  junk  comes  in  laden  with  rice,  commis- 
sion merchants  get  on  board  and  strike  for  bar- 
gains. The  capacity  of  the  vessel  is  measured  by 
the  amount  of  rice  it  can  carry.  The  grain  mer- 
chant carries  about  him  a  good-sized  bamboo  a  few 
inches  long,  one  end  of  which  is  sharpened  and  the 
other  closed,  being  cut  just  at  a  joint.  He  thrusts 
7 


8  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

the  pointed  end  into  bags  of  the  rice.  The  bags 
are  rice-straw,  knitted  together  roughly  into  the 
shape  of  barrels.  Having  taken  out  samples  in  the 
hollow  inside  of  the  bamboo  stick,  the  merchant 
first  examines  critically  the  physical  qualities  of 
the  grains  on  the  palm  of  his  hand,  and  then  pro- 
ceeds to  chew  them  in  order  to  see  how  they  taste. 
Years  of  practice  enable  him  to  state,  after  such 
simple  tests,  precisely  what  section  of  the  country 
the  article  in  question  came  from,  although  the 
captain  of  the  vessel  may  claim  to  have  shipped  it 
from  a  famous  rice-producing  province. 

About  the  harbor  are  coolies  waiting  for  work. 
They  are  strong,  muscular  men,  thinly  clad,  with 
easy  straw  sandals  on.  Putting  a  little  cushion  on 
the  left  shoulder,  a  coolie  rests  the  rice-bag  upon  it 
and  walks  away  from  the  ship  to  a  store-house; 
his  left  hand  passed  around  the  burden  and  his 
right  holding  a  short,  stout,  beak-like,  iron  hook 
fastened  in  the  bag.  In  idle  moments  the  coolies 
get  together  and  indulge  in  tests  of  strength,  lift- 
ing heavy  weights,  etc. 

At  a  short  distance  to  the  right  from  the 
entrance  of  the  harbor  is  a  sanitarium.  It  is  a 
huge,  artificial  cave,  built  of  stone  and  mortar  and 
heated  by  burning  wood-fires  in  the  inside.  After 
it  is  sufficiently  warmed  the  fire  is  extinguished, 
the  smoke-escape  shut,  and  the  oven  is  ready  for 
use.  Invalids  flock  in  with  wet  mats,  which  they 
use  in  sitting  on  the  scalding  rocky  floor  of  the 
oven.  Lifting  the  mat  that  hangs  like  a  curtain, 
at  the  entrance,  they  plunge  into  the  suffocating 
hot  air  and  remain  there  some  time  and  emerge 


£Y  HIMSELF.  9 

again  into  daylight,  fairly  roasted  and  smothered. 
Then  they  speedily  make  for  the  sea  and  bathe  in 
it.  This  process  of  alternate  heating  and  cooling 
is  repeated  several  times  a  day.  It  is  to  cook  out, 
as  it  were,  diseases  from  the  body.  For  some  con- 
stitutions the  first  breath  of  the  oven  immediately 
after  the  warming  is  considered  best,  for  others 
the  mild  warmth  of  later  hours  is  thought  more 
commendable.  I,  for  myself,  who  have  accompa- 
nied my  mother  and  gone  through  the  torture,  do 
not  like  either  very  much.  The  health-seekers 
rent  rooms  in  a  few  large  cottages  standing  near 
by.  In  fact,  they  live  out  of  town,  free  from  busi- 
ness and  domestic  cares,  pass  time  at  games,  or 
saunter  and  breathe  pure  air  under  pine-trees  in 
the  neighborhood.  The  establishment  is  opened 
only  during  summer  time.  A  person  ought  to  get 
well  in  whiling  away  in  free  air  those  glorious 
summer  days  without  the  aid  of  the  roasting 
scheme. 

To  the  left  of  the  harbor  along  the  shore  stands 
the  main  body  of  Imabari.  Mt.  Myozin  heaves 
in  sight  long  before  anything  of  the  town  can  be 
seen.  It  is  not  remarkable  as  a  mountain,  but  be- 
ing so  near  my  town,  whenever  I  have  espied  it  on 
my  return  I  have  felt  at  home.  I  can  remember 
its  precise  outline.  As  we  draw  nearer,  white- 
plastered  warehouses,  the  sea-god's  shrine  jutting 
out  into  the  water,  and  the  castle  stone  walls  come 
in  our  view.  You  observe  no  church-steeple,  that 
pointed  object  so  characteristically  indicative  of 
a  city  at  a  distance  in  the  Christian  community. 
To  be  sure,  the  pagoda  towers  toward  the  sky  in 


10  A  JAPANESE  HOY. 

the  community  of  Buddhists;  but  it  is  more  elabor 
ate  and  costly  a  thing  than  the  steeple,  and  Ima- 
bari  is  too  poor  to  have  one. 

Facing  the  town,  in  the  sea,  rises  a  mountainous 
island ;  it  encloses  with  the  neighboring  islets  the 
Lmabari  sound.  A  report  goes  that  on  this  island 
lies  a  gigantic  stone,  apparently  immovable  by 
human  agency,  so  situated  that  a  child  can  rock  it 
with  one  hand.  Also  that  a  monster  of  a  tortoise, 
centuries  old,  floats  up  occasionally  from  an 
immeasurable  abyss  near  the  island  to  sun  itself : 
and  those  who  had  seen  it  thought  it  was  an 
island. 

Very  picturesque  if  viewed  from  the  sea  but 
painfully  poverty-stricken  to  the  sight  when  near, 
is  a  quarter  closely  adjoining  Imabari  on  the  north. 
It  is  on  the  shore  and  entirely  made  up  of  fisher- 
men's homes.  The  picturesque,  straw-thatched 
cottages  stand  under  tall,  knotty  pine-trees  and 
send  up  thin  curls  of  smoke.  Their  occupants 
are,  however,  untidy,  careless,  ignorant,  dirty; 
the  squalid  children  let  loose  everywhere  in  ragged 
dress,  bareheaded  and  barefooted.  The  men. 
naked  all  summer  and  copper-colored,  go  fishing 
for  days  at  a  time  in  their  boats ;  the  women  sell 
the  fishes  in  the  streets  of  Imabari.  A  fisher-wo- 
man carries  her  fishes  in  a  large,  shallow,  wooden 
tub  that  rests  on  her  head ;  she  also  carries  on  her 
breast  a  babe  that  cannot  be  left  at  home. 

Imabari  has  about  a  dozen  streets.  They  are 
narrow,  dirty,  and  have  no  sidewalks;  man  and 
beast  walk  the  same  path.  As  no  carriages  and 
\vagons  rush  by,  it  is  perfectly  safe  for  one  to 


i:y  HIMSELF.  u 

saunter  along  the  streets  half  asleep.  The  first 
thing  I  noticed  upon  my  landing  in  New  York  was, 
that  in  America  a  man  had  to  look  out  every  min- 
ute for  his  personal  safety.  From  time  to  time  I 
was  collared  by  the  captain  who  had  charge  of  me 
with,  "Here,  boy!"  and  I  frequently  found  great 
truck  horses  or  an  express  wagon  almost  upon  me. 
In  crossing  the  streets,  horse-cars  surprised  me 
more  than  once  in  a  way  I  did  not  like,  and  the 
thundering  engine  on  the  Manhattan  road  caused 
me  to  crouch  involuntarily.  Imabari  is  quite  a 
different  place;  all  is  peace  and  quiet  there.  In 
one  section  of  the  town  blacksmiths  reside  exclu- 
sively, making  the  street  black  with  coal  dust.  In 
another  granite  workers  predominate,  rendering 
the  street  white  with  fine  stone  chips.  On  Temple 
street,  you  remark  temples  of  different  Buddhist 
denominations,  standing  side  by  side  in  good  fellow- 
ship; and  in  Fishmongers'  alley  all  the  houses 
have  fish-stalls,  and  are  filled  with  the  odor  of 
fish.  The  Japanese  do  not  keep  house  in  one  place 
and  store  in  another;  they  live  in  their  stores. 
Neither  do  we  have  that  singular  system  of  board- 
ing houses.  Our  people  have  homes  of  their  own, 
however  poor. 

My  family  lived  on  the  main  street,  which  is 
divided  into  four  subdivisions  or  "blocks."  The 
second  block  is  the  commercial  centre,  so  to  speak, 
of  the  town,  and  there  my  father  kept  a  store. 
My  grandfather,  I  understood,  resided  in  another 
street  before  he  moved  with  his  son-in-law,  my 
father,  to  the  main  street.  He  lived  to  the  great 
age  of  eighty:  I  shall  always  remember  him  with 


!•»  .!   .IM'AXJSHK  HOY. 

honor  and  reaped.  Of  my  grandmother  I  know 
absolutely  nothing,  she  having  passed  away  before 
I  was  born. 

It  is  customary  in  Japan  that  a  man  too  old  for 
business  and  whose  head  is  white  with  the  effect 
of  many  weary  winters,  should  retire  and  hiber- 
nate in  a  quiet  chamber,  or  in  a  cottage  called 
iukyo  (hiding  place),  and  be  waited  upon  by  his 
eldest  son  or  son-in-law  who  succeeds  him  in  busi- 
ness. My  good  grandfather — his  kindly  face  and 
pleasant  words  come  back  to  me  this  moment — 
lived  in  a  nice  little  house  in  the  rear  of  my 
father's.  Although  strong  in  mind  he  was  bent 
with  age  and  went  about  with  the  help  of  a  bamboo 
cane.  He  lived  alone,  had  little  to  do,  but  read  a 
great  deal,  and  thought  much,  and  when  tired  did 
some  light  manual  work.  It  was  a  great  pleasure 
for  me  to  visit  him  often.  In  cold  winter  days 
he  would  be  found  sitting  by  kotatsu,  a  native 
heating  apparatus.  It  is  constructed  on  the  follow- 
ing plan :  a  hole  a  foot  square  is  cut  in  the  centre 
of  the  matted  floor,  wherein  a  stone  vessel  is  fitted, 
and  a  frame  of  wood  about  a  foot  high  laid  on  it 
so  as  to  protect  the  quilt  that  is  to  be  spread  over 
it,  from  burning.  The  vessel  is  filled  with  ashes, 
and  a  charcoal  fire  is  burned  in  it.  I  used  to  take 
my  position  near  my  grandfather,  with  my  hands 
and  feet  beneath  the  quilt,  and  ask  him  to  tell 
stories.  My  feet  were  either  bare  or  in  a  pair  of 
socks,  for  before  getting  on  the  floor  we  leave  our 
shoes  in  the  yard.  Our  shoes,  by  the  way,  are 
more  like  the  ancient  Jewish  sandals  than  the 
modern  leather  shoes. 


BY  HIMSELF.  13 

In  this  little  house  of  my  grandfather's  I  erected 
my  own  private  shrine  of  Tenjinsan,  the  god  of 
penmanship.  The  Japanese  and  the  Chinese  value 
highly  a  skilful  hand  at  writing;  a  famous  scroll  - 
writer  gets  a  large  sum  of  money  with  a  few 
strokes  of  his  brush;  he  is  looked  up  to  like  a 
celebrated  painter.  We  school-boys  occasionally 
proposed  penmanship  contests.  On  the  same  sheet 
of  paper  each  of  us  wrote,  one  beside  another,  his 
favorite  character,  or  did  his  best  at  one  character 
we  had  mutually  agreed  upon,  and  took  it  to  our 
teacher  to  decide  upon  the  finest  hand.  The  best 
specimens  of  a  school  are  sometimes  framed  and 
hung  on  the  walls  of  a  public  temple  of  Tenjin. 
He  is  worshiped  by  all  school-boys,  and  I  also  fol- 
lowed the  fashion.  My  image  of  him  was  made 
of  clay ;  I  laid  it  on  a  shelf  and  offered  sake  (rice- 
wine)  in  two  tiny  earthen  bottles,  lighted  a  little 
lamp  every  night  and  put  up  prayers  in  childish 
zeal.  The  family  rejoiced  at  my  devotion;  they 
finally  bought  me,  one  holiday,  a  miniature  toy 
temple.  It  was  painted  in  gay  colors;  I  was 
delighted  with  it  beyond  expression,  and  my 
devotion  increased  tenfold. 


14  A  ./. i /M.v /•>•/•;  HOY. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  earliest  recollection  I  have  of  my  school  life 
is  my  entrance  with  a  number  of  playmates  into  a 
private  gentleman's  school.  At  that  time  the  com 
mon  school  system  which  now  exists  in  Japan  had 
not  been  adopted ;  some  gentlemen  of  the  town  kept 
private  schools,  in  which  exercises  consisted  mainly 
of  penmanship ;  for  arithmetic  we  ha'd  to  go  some- 
where else.  In  Imabari  there  lived  a  keen-eyed 
little  man  who  was  wonderfully  quick  at  figures, 
and  to  him  we  repaired  for  instruction  in  mathe- 
matics. We  worked,  not  with  slate  and  pencil,  but 
with  a  rectangular  wooden  frame  set  with  beads, 
resembling  an  abacus.  It  is  called  soroban;  you 
find  it  in  every  store  in  Japan.  I  like  it  better 
than  slate  and  pencil,  for  the  fundamental  opera- 
tions of  arithmetic,  but  cannot  use  it  in  higher 
mathematics.  I  remember  seeing  a  young  man  of 
my  acquaintance  perform  algebraic  calculations,  of 
which  we  had  some  knowledge  before  the  influx  of 
Western  learning,  with  a  number  of  little  black 
and  white  blocks  called  the  "  mathematical  blocks." 
A  knowledge  of  penmanship  and  arithmetic  is  all 
that  is  required  of  a  man  of  business,  but  a  learned 
man  is  expected  to  read  Chinese. 

My  schoolmaster  was  a  kind  of  priest,  not  of  Budd- 


BY  HIMSELF.  ]5 

hism  nor  of  Shintoism,  but  one  of  those  who  go  by 
the  name  of  Yamabushi ;  he  let  his  hair  grow  instead 
of  shaving  it  off  as  the  Buddhist  priest  does,  wore 
high  clogs  and  the  peculiar  robe  of  his  religion.  He 
simply  followed  his  father  in  the  vocation ;  he  was 
a  young  man  of  high  promise  and  manifested  more 
ardor  in  letters  than  at  the  prayers  for  the  sick  or 
for  the  prosperity  of  the  people.  His  house  was  on 
the  fourth  block  of  the  main  street,  set  back  a  little 
from  the  street  and  with  an  open  yard  between  the 
tall,  elaborate  gate  and  the  mansion.  The  front  of 
the  residence  was  taken  up  by  the  shrine ;  the  school 
was  kept  in  the  back  part  of  the  house.  When  we 
first  entered  the  school  we  were  known  as  the  ' '  new- 
comers" among  the  older  boys,  and  though  bullying 
was  not  altogether  absent,  we  had  no  ordeal  to  go 
through  as  the  Freshmen  have  in  American  col- 
leges. 

The  pupil's  equipment  in  one  of  these  old-fash- 
ioned schools  consisted  of  a  low  table,  a  cushion  to 
squat  upon,  and  a  chest  for  the  following  articles : 
white  paper,  copy-books  and  a  small  box  contain- 
ing a  stone  ink-vessel,  a  cake  of  india  ink,  an 
earthen  water-bottle  and  brushes.  A  little  water 
is  poured  in  the  hollow  of  the  stone  vessel,  the 
india  ink  rubbed  on  it  for  a  while,  and  when  the 
water  becomes  sufficiently  black  the  brush  is 
dipped  in  it.  Then  looking  at  model  characters 
written  down  for  us  in  a  separate  book  by  the 
teacher,  we  try  to  trace  the  same  on  our  copy- 
books, paying  close  attention  to  every  particular. 
The  first  that  we  must  learn  is  our  alphabet  of 
forty-eight  letters. 


16  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

I  recall  vividly  the  trials  in  making  the  alpha- 
betical figures.  I  tried  time  and  again,  but  to  fail ; 
the  sorrow  gathered  thickly  in  my  mind  and  soon 
the  grief  overpowered  all  my  strenuous  efforts  not 
to  weep,  then  the  master  would  send  one  of  the 
older  boys  to  help  me.  He  stands  behind  me  while 
I  sit,  grasps  my  hand  which  holds  the  brush,  and  to 
my  heart's  content  traces  figures  like  the  master's 
in  perfection. 

The  copy-book  is  made  of  the  tenacious  soft  Jap- 
anese paper,  many  sheets  of  which  are  bound 
together.  Each  of  the  forty-eight  characters  is 
studied  separately ;  it  is  written  large  so  that  the 
learner  may  see  where  a  bold  stroke  is  required  and 
where  a  mild  touch.  After  the  alphabet  we  learn 
to  write  Chinese  characters.  The  copy-books  be- 
come black  after  a  while,  being  dried  and  used 
again ;  therefore  they  need  not  be  perfectly  white 
at  first ;  usually  they  are  made  of  the  sheets  of  an 
old  ledger.  I  used  to  see  on  the  pages  of  the  copy- 
books made  for  me  by  my  father,  old  debts  and 
credits,  and  the  names  of  the  parties  concerned  in 
them,  dating  back  to  grandfather's  time ;  they  dis- 
appeared collectively  under  my  wild  dash  and 
sweep  of  india  ink.  What  an  act  of  generosity  to 
wipe  out  the  remembrance  of  former  money  com- 
plications! After  a  day's  work  all  the  copy-books 
are  literally  drenched  with  the  black  fluid;  they 
are  moist  and  heavy.  They  must  be  dried.  Every 
patch  of  sunshine  about  the  school  is  improved, 
every  breezy  corner  turned  to  account.  At  home 
the  kitchen  is  spread  with  them  at  night,  so  as  to 
have  them  dry  by  the  morning.  Copy-books  that 


BY  HIMSELF.  1? 

have  done  long  service  are  coated  with  a  smooth, 
shining  incrustation  of  carbon — shining  if  good  ink 
has  been  used,  but  dull  if  ink  is  of  cheap  quality. 
The  quality  of  an  india  ink  cake  is  not  only  judged 
by  its  lustre,  but  also  by  its  hardness  and  odor;  a 
good  one  is  hard  and  pleasant  and  the  bad  soft 
and  unpleasant.  After  we  have  practised  writing 
the  letters  for  some  time,  we  finally  write  them  on 
white  papers  arid  present  them  to  our  teacher,  who 
with  red  ink  makes  further  necessary  corrections. 
If  the  final  copy  is  satisfactory,  he  sets  us  at  work 
on  a  next  portion. 

Every  morning,  after  breakfast,  I  gathered  to- 
gether dried  copy-books  and  went  after  or  waited 
for  some  boys  to  come  along.  We  strolled  up  the 
street  toward  the  schoolmaster's,  calling  on  other 
boys  as  we  went.  The  first  task  in  school  upon  our 
arrival  was  to  set  the  tables  in  order,  get  the  things 
out  of  the  chests  and  go  after  some  water  for  mak- 
ing the  ink.  It  was  no  comfortable  occupation,  cold 
winter  mornings,  to  get  the  water  from  the  well 
in  the  windy,  open  yard  in  the  rear  of  the  house, 
and  dip  our  hand  and  the  drip -bottle  together  and 
keep  them  in  it  until  all  the  air  escaped  by  bubbles, 
and  the  bottle  was  full.  A  bottle  though  I  called  it, 
the  receptacle  is  a  hollow,  square  china  vessel,  with 
two  small  holes  on  the  flat  surface — one  in  the 
centre  and  the  other  in  one  of  the  corners. 

We  sit  in  a  house  where  there  is  practically  no  ar- 
rangement for  heating  and  where  we  are  poorly  pro- 
tected from  the  .gusts  from  without.  The  Japanese 
house  is  built  opening  widely  into  the  external  air; 
it  has  but  a  few  segments  of  external  walls  around 
2 


18  -1  JAPANESE  BOY. 

it ;  therefore  one  can  select  no  breezier  abode  dur- 
ing tlie  warm  months,  but  in  the  dead  of  win  er — 
the  mere  thought  of  it  makes  me  shiver.  Those 
immense  open  spaces  could  be  closed,  to  be  sure,  at 
night  with  solid  pine-board  sliding  doors;  but  in 
the  daytime  the  question  of  light  comes  in.  To 
meet  this  difficulty  our  ingenious  forefathers  had 
contrived  a  frame-work  of  wood  pasted  with  paper. 
You  must  know  they  had  no  idea  of  glass.  Wo 
can  scarcely  call  it  a  happy  solution  of  the  prob- 
bletu,  for  the  paper  is  soon  punched  through  and 
lets  in  the  biting  wind;  Too  much  active  ventila- 
tion takes  place,  whistling  through  the  holes ;  and 
then  when  a  storm  strikes  us,  the  whole  frail  work 
shakes  in  the  grooves  wherein  its  two  ends  are 
fitted,  like  the  chattering  of  the  teeth.  This  sliding 
paper  partition  is  called  shoji,  and  of  late  has  been 
somewhat  replaced  by  the  more  expensive  glass 
windows.  Since  the  introduction  of  glass  I  have 
seen  the  shoji  partly  covered  with  it  and  partly 
with  paper,  the  Japanese  thinking  it  very  conven- 
ient to  see  through  the  partition  without  being  at 
the  pains  of  pushing  it  aside  or  making  a  hole  in 
the  paper.  Had  paper  been  entirely  discarded  and 
glass  alone  been  uused  the  Japanese  house  would  be 
much  brighter  and  warmer. 

Such  a  building  is  a  poor  place  to  hold  a  school  in, 
but  the  boys  were  used  to  it  and  they  behaved  so — 
quarreling,  weeping,  laughing,  shrieking — that 
there  was  little  time  left  for  them  to  feel  the  cold 
in  their  young  warm  blood. 


BY  HIMSELF.  19 


CHAPTER  III. 

WHEN  just  from  school  our  faces  and  hands  were 
as  black  as  demons'  with  ink.  On  my  reaching 
home  my  mother  would  take  care  of  the  copy- 
books, and  send  me  straight  to  the  kitchen  to  wash 
before  I  sat  down  to  the  table.  The  vessel  corres- 
ponding to  the  basin  is  made  of  brass.  We  have 
not  learned  to  use  soap ;  old  folks  believe  that  it 
would  turn  our  black  hair  red  like  that  of  the  for- 
eigners. There  is  no  convenience  of  faucet  or 
pump;  each  house  has  its  own  well  in  the  back 
yard,  even  in  the  city; — hence  no  water- works, 
no  gas-works,  and  no  fuss  about  plumbing;  the 
housewife  must  proceed  to  the  well  for  water,  rain 
or  shine,  and  struggle  back  to  the  kitchen  with  a 
pailful  of  it  every  time  she  needs  it. 

The  kitchen  itself  is  not  often  floored ;  the  range 
(of  clay  and  of  different  appearance  from  that 
which  is  used  here)  and  the  sink  stand  directly  on 
mother  earth  under  a  shed-like  roof  which  has  been 
darkened  by  smoke.  The  range  has  no  chimney ; 
not  coal  but  wood  is  burned  in  it,  and  all  the 
smoke  escapes  from  the  front  opening  or  mouth 
and  fills  the  entire  kitchen,  causing  the  dear  black 
eyes  of  the  amiable  housewife  to  suffuse  with  tears. 

She  has  the  small  Japanese  towel  wrapped  round 


20  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

her  head  to  protect  the  elaborate  coiffure  from  the 
soot  of  years,  that  has  accumulated  everywhere 
and  falls  in  gentle  flakes,  snow-fashion,  on  things 
universally.  She  works  her  pair  of  lungs  at  the 
' '  fire-blowing  tube, "  a  large  bamboo  two  or  three 
feet  long,  opened  at  one  end  for  a  mouth-piece  and 
punched  at  the  other  for  a  narrow  orifice.  The  im- 
prisoned volumes  of  smoke  in  the  kitchen  must 
crowd  out  through  a  square  aperture  in  the  roof ;  if 
it  be  closed  on  a  rainy  day,  they  must  escape 
through  windows  or  crevices  the  best  they  may. 

The  water  when  brought  in  from  the  well  is 
emptied  into  a  deep  heavy  earthen  reservoir  of 
reddish  hue  standing  near  the  sink.  With  a 
wooden  ladle  I  would  dip  out  the  water  into  the 
brass  basin  (sheet  brass,  not  solid),  and  wash  my- 
self without  soap  in  the  most  rapid  manner  pos- 
sible, yearning  eagerly  for  dinner.  The  towel  is  a 
piece  of  cotton  dyed  blue  with  designs  left  undyed 
or  dyed  black.  I  grumbled,  I  confess,  when  my 
mother  sent  me  back  for  a  more  thorough  washing ; 
but  with  the  utmost  alacrity  I  always  saluted  the 
very  sight  of  viands. 

Oftentimes  I  was  late  and  was  obliged  to  eat  a 
late  dinner  alone ;  but  when  all  of  our  family  sat 
down  together,  enough  of  life  was  manifested.  At 
one  end  my  witty  young  brother  provoked  laughter 
in  us  with  stuff  and  nonsense;  next  him  sat  my 
younger  sister,  quiet  and  good.  I  assumed  my 
position  between  my  sister  and  my  father  and 
mother,  who  sat  together  at  the  head  of  the  row. 
I  forget  to  mention  that  my  elder  brother,  whose 
place  must  be  next  above  me,  had  been  ordered  to 


BY  HIMSELF.  21 

keep  peace  in  the  region  of  my  merry  little  brother. 
My  sister-in-law  or  my  elder  brother's  wife  took 
her  stand  opposite  us,  surrounded  by  a  rice-bucket, 
a  cast-iron  cooking-pot,  a  teapot,  a  basket  of  rice- 
bowls,  saucers,  etc.  She  it  was  who  had  to  cook 
and  serve  dinner  and  wash  dishes  and  take  care  of 
her  babies.  It  is  this  that  renders  a'young  married 
woman's  lot  in  life  very  hard  in  Japan,  the  princi- 
cipal  weight  of  daily  work  devolving  upon  her. 
After  all  this,  if  parents-in-law  are  not  pleased 
with  her  she  is  in  imminent  danger  of  being  turned 
off  like  a  hired  servant,  however  affectionate  she 
may  be  toward  her  husband ;  and  the  husband  feels 
it  his  duty  to  part  with  her  despite  his  deep  attach- 
ment; so  sacred  is  regarded  the  manifestation  of 
filial  piety !  Fortunately  for  my  sister-in-law,  my 
mother,  who  has  four  daughters  living  with  their 
husbands'  relatives,  made  every  household  task 
as  light  and  easy  as  she  could  for  her  and  ex- 
pressed sympathy  when  needed,  knowing  that  her 
own  daughters  were  laboring  in  the  like  circum- 
stances. 

We  do  not  eat  at  one  large  dining  table  with 
chairs  round  it ;  we  sit  on  our  heels  on  the  matted 
floor  with  a  separate  small  table  in  front  of  each  of 
us.  I  remember  my  table  was  in  the  form  of  a  box 
about  a  foot  square,  the  lid  of  which  I  lifted  and 
laid  on  the  body  of  the  box  with  the  inner  surface 
up.  The  inner  surface  was  japanned  red,  the  outer 
surface  and  the  sides  of  the  box  green.  The  con- 
venience of  this  form  of  table  is,  that  you  can  store 
away  your  own  rice-bowl,  vegetable-dish  and  chop- 
stick  case  in  the  box.  Some  tables  stand  on  two 


•!•>  A  JAPANESE  HOY. 

flat  and  broad  legs,  others  have  drawers  in  their 
sides.  We  do  not  ring  the  bell  in  announcing 
dinner;  in  large  families  they  clap  two  oblong 
blocks  of  hard  wood.  Grace  before  meat  •  was  a 
thing  unknown  to  us ;  my  brother,  however,  had  a 
queer  habit  of  bowing  to  his  chopsticks  at  the 
dose  of  meals.  He  did  it  from  simple  heartfelt 
gratitude  and  not  for  show.  In  his  ignorance  of 
Him  who  provideth  our  daily  bread,  he  concluded 
to  return  thanks  to  the  tools  of  immediate  useful- 
ness. Chopsticks  are  of  various  materials — bam- 
boo, mahogany,  ivory,  etc., — and  in  different 
shapes— round,  angular,  slender  at  one  end  and 
stout  at  the  other,  etc.  In  a  great  public  feast 
-.vhere  there  is  no  knowing  the  number  present,  or 
a  religious  fete  where  reverential  cleanliness  is 
formally  insisted  upon,  fork-shaped  splints  of  soft 
wood  are  distributed  among  the  guests  who  rend 
them  asunder  into  pairs  of  impromptu  chopsticks. 
On  the  morning  of  New  Year's  Day  tradition 
requires  us  to  use  chopsticks  prepared  hastily  of 
mulberry  twigs  in  handling  rice-paste  cakes  called 
mochi,  which  the  people  cook  with  various  edibles 
and  eat,  as  a  sort  of  religious  ceremony. 

Rice  is  the  staple  food.  Vegetables  and  fishes 
are  also  consumed,  yet  no  meat  is  eaten.  Par- 
tridge and  game,  however,  were  sanctioned  from 
early  times  as  food  or  rather  as  luxuries.  To  cook 
rice  just  right — not  too  soft  nor  too  hard — is  not  an 
easy  matter ;  it  is  considered  an  art  every  Japanese 
maiden  of  marriageable  age  must  needs  acquire. 
The  rice  is  first  washed  in  a  wooden  tub,  and  then 
transferred  to  a  deep  iron  cooking-pot  with  some 


BY  HIMSELF.  33 

Avater.  The  point  lies  in  the  question,  how  much 
water  is  needed?  Neither  too  much  nor  too  little; 
there  is  a  golden  mean.  If  the  rice  be  cooked 
either  the  very  least  little  bit  soft  or  hard  the 
young  servant-wife,  for  really  that  she  is,  is  blamed 
for  it.  The  right  amount  of  water  is  only  ascer- 
tained by  trial.  No  less  puzzling  is  the  degree  of 
heat  to  be  applied  to  the  pot,  and  the  point  at  which 
to  withdraw  the  fuel  and  leave  the  cooking  to  be 
completed  without  any  further  application  of  heat. 
These  things  I  speak  of  not  merely  from  observation 
but  from  personal  experience.  When  I  was  off  at 
a  boarding  school,  which  I  may  have  occasion  to 
speak  of,  I  experimented  in  boarding  myself  for 
a  while ;  I  learned  there  how  to  cook  as  at  a  young 
ladies'  seminary,  as  well  as  how  to  write  and  read. 
Hot  boiled  rice  we  always  have  at  dinner;  at 
supper  and  breakfast  we  pour  boiling  tea  over  cold 
rice  in  the  bowl  and  are  content.  Tea  is  boiling  in 
the  kitchen  from  morning  till  night.  It  is  drunk 
with  no  sugar  or  milk;  indeed,  the  scrupulous 
inhabitants  of  the  "land  of  the  gods"  never 
dreamt  of  tasting  the  milk  of  a  brute.  If  a  babe 
is  nourished  with  cow's  milk,  it  is  believed  that 
the  horns  will  grow  on  his  forehead.  When  no 
palatable  dishes  are  to  be  had  we  eat  our  rice  with 
pickled  plums  and  preserved  radishes,  turnips, 
egg-plants  and  cabbage.  The  preserves  are  not 
done  up  in  glass  jars ;  they  are  kept  in  a  huge  tub 
of  salt  and  rice-bran.  During  the  summer  months 
when  vegetables  are  plenty  and  cheap  we  buy  a 
great  quantity  of  them  from  a  farmer  of  our 
acquaintance.  He  brings  them  on  the  back  of  a 


24  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

horse.  The  poor  animal  is  usually  loaded  so 
heavily  that  only  his  head  and  tail  are  visible 
amidst  the  mountain  of  cabbage  leaves.  Days  are 
spent  in  washing  and  scrubbing  the  roots  and  bulbs 
of  the  garden,  many  more  in  drying  them  in  the 
sun.  House-tops,  weather-beaten  walls,  fences  and 
all  available  windy  corners  are  utilized  in  hang- 
ing up  the  vegetables.  When  partly  dried  they 
are  packed  in  salt  and  rice-bran  and  subjected  to 
pressure  in  bamboo- hooped  wooden  tubs,  com- 
monly by  laying  old  millstones  on  them.  Being 
but  partially  dry,  the  vegetables  deliver  the 
remaining  moisture  to  the  powder  in  which  they 
are  packed,  and  in  course  of  time  the  whole  con- 
tents become  soaked  in  a  yellowish,  muddy,  pun- 
gent liquid.  Koko,  as  the  vegetables  are  then 
called,  can  be  preserved  in  this  way  throughout  the 
whole  year.  They  are  taken  out  from  time  to  time, 
washed  and  sliced  and  relished  with  great  satisfac- 
tion. They  are  something  that  is  sure  to  be 
obtained  in  any  house  at  any  time ;  with  cold  rice 
and  hot  tea  they  make  up  our  simplest  fare. 

When  I  was  late  from  school  I  made  out  my 
dinner  with  the  rice  and  k5ko.  Frequently,  how- 
ever, my  provident  mother  set  aside  for  me  some- 
thing nice. 


.fir  HIMSELF. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

I  BELIEVE  we  had  no  afternoon  session  in  the  old- 
fashioned  school ;  and  the  boys  had  two  or  three 
pet  games  to  play  in  leisure  hours.  One  of  them 
was  played  in  this  manner :  each  one  is  provided 
with  a  number  of  pointed  iron  sticks  a  few  inches 
long.  The  leader  pitches  one  of  his  sticks  in  soft 
soil ;  the  second  follows  suit,  aiming  to  root  out  his 
predecessor's  by  the  force  of  pitching  in  his  own 
close  to  it;  then  the  third,  the  fourth,  and  all 
around  the  company.  Another  of  the  games  was 
played  with  square  chips  of  wood,  on  which  were 
painted  heads  of  men,  demons  and  all  sorts  of 
fanciful  figures.  A  triangle  was  drawn  on  hard 
level  ground  and  at  a  distance  from  its  base  a 
parallel  line;  from  which  line  the  boys  each  in 
turn  threw  a  common  lot  of  the  chips,  contributed 
by  all,  into  the  inside  of  the  triangle.  It  must  be 
done  with  the  same  nicety  of  aim  and  attitude  as 
in  throwing  quoits.  A  habit  established  itself 
among  us  of  the  players  coming  down  to  the 
ground  on  all  fours  immediately  after  the  act  of 
throwing ;  it  was  the  consequence  of  bending  too  far 
forward  in  order  to  get  in  all  the  chips  at  the  peril 
of  neglecting  the  centre  of  gravity.  The  chips  that 
flew  outside  of  the  triangle  were  gathered  by  the 


-.'»;  A  .i.\i'A\i':sE  nor. 

next  player  and  those  in  the  inside  allowed  to  be 
taken  by  the  player,  should  he  be  able  to  throw  a 
chip  from  his  hand  and  lay  it  on  them  one  by  one. 
If  he  failed  at  any  moment,  the  next  player  gath- 
ered together  all  the  remaining  chips  and  played 
his  turn.  A  modification  of  this  game  consists  in 
throwing  the  chips  against  a  wall,  and  counting 
good  those  only  that  remain  inside  a  straight 
line  parallel  with  the  foot  of  the  wall,  and  turning 
over  to  the  next  player  those  on  the  outside.  The 
game  is  played  by  girls  as  well  as  by  boys, 
although  they  rarely  play  together. 

We  also  used  to  play  hide-and-seek,  blind-man's- 
buff  and  other  games  that  are  familiar  in  this 
country. 

Later  in  my  school  days  the  government  under- 
went great  changes,  and  it  adopted  the  common 
school  system  of  the  West.  My  father  was  to  pay 
a  school-tax  and  I  to  attend  a  new  school,  where 
instruction  was  not  in  penmanship  alone  but  ex- 
tended over  various  subjects.  Text-books  on 
arithmetic,  Japanese  geography  and  history  had 
been  compiled  after  the  American  pattern,  but  no 
grammar  appeared;  the  educational  department 
left  the  language  to  be  taught  by  the  purely  induc- 
tive method.  The  fact  is  that  the  Japanese  lan- 
guage has  not  been  systematized;  should  one 
attempt  it  he  would  find  it  a  tremendous  task. 

When  I  was  on  the  point  of  leaving  for  America 
my  brother  put  into  my  hand  a  Japanese  gram- 
mar in  two  thin  volumes,  written  by  a  literary  man 
in  Tokio,  and  said  that  it  was  being  used  in 
schools.  I  have  them  still  by  me  and  privately 


BY  HIMSELF.  27 

consider  the  attempt  not  a  very  great  success. 
The  gentleman  tries  to  follow  the  steps  of  the 
European  grammarian ;  he  cleverly  makes  out 
"noun  "  and  ".pronoun,"  "  verb  "  and  "  adverb  "- 
even  "article,"  (which,  in  good  faith,  I  never  in 
the  slightest  suspected  our  language  was  guilty  of 
possessing)  from  the  chaos.  Upon  the  whole,  the 
book  has  the  effect  of  confusing  instead  of  enlight- 
ening me;  after  my  dabbling  in  languages,  in 
Japanese  I  prefer  to  be  taught  like  a  babe. 

Japanese  dictionaries  are  for  the  purpose  of 
hunting  up  Japanese  meanings  of  Chinese  letters, 
answering  to  your  Latin  and  Greek  lexicons.  So 
much  of  Chinese  has  been  introduced  into  our  lan- 
guage in  the  course  of  centuries,  that  it  is  now  im- 
possible to  read  one  line  in  a  Japanese  newspaper, 
for  instance,  without  coming  across  Chinese  char- 
acters. In  books  for  women  and  children  and  in 
popular  novels  Japanese  equivalents  are  written 
beside  Chinese  words.  In  getting  lessons  we  made 
little  use  of  the  dictionaries ;  once  learned  by  dicta- 
tion from  the  teacher  we  relied  on  our  memory 
and  that  of  others;  hence  frequent  review  was 
needed  to  retain  them.  As  the  new  school 
system  took  root,  the  school  books  began  to  have 
vocabularies  and  keys;  and  the  Chinese  classics 
pursued  by  advanced  students  their  ' '  pony. " 

Just  at  present  a  movement  is  on  foot  to  sim- 
plify our  tongue  in  its  complication  with  Chinese. 
People  generally  suppose  the  two  languages  are 
alike ;  many  of  them  have  asked  me  if  I  could  in- 
terpret to  them  what  the  down-town  "washees" 
were  so  merrily  babbling  about  over  their  flat- 


28  ^1  JAPANESE  BOY. 

irons.  It  is  a  mistake;  Japanese  and  Chinese  are 
totally  different,  strange  as  it  may  appear.  And 
yet  I  had  to  learn  my  Chinese  in  order  to  read  our 
standard  works.  If  the  common  people  could  un- 
derstand Chinese  as  well  as  the  learned  persons,  I 
believe  we  could  get  along  very  well  with  our 
language  as  it  is;  but  they  do  not.  It  would  be 
very  inconvenient  indeed  if,  for  instance,  in  this 
country  the  "educated"  people  should  use  long 
words  all  the  while,  or  employ  French  expressions 
freely  in  talking  and  writing.  Just  such  a  pedan- 
try exists  in  my  native  country,  and  truly  educa- 
ted men  are  crying  out  for  reformation.  There 
are  two  parties.  One  party  thinks  it  can  do  it  by 
using  unadulterated  Japanese,  while  the  other 
deems  nothing  short  of  the  Romanization  of  the 
whole  fabric — that  is,  the  adoption  of  the  Roman 
alphabet  in  spelling  Japanese  words — could  accom- 
plish the  end.  Opinion  is  equally  divided  between 
them;  the  second  party  may  appear  slightly 
stronger  on  account  of  its  members  for  the  greater 
part  being  students  of  other  languages  beside  their 
<  >wn.  Both  these  parties  issue  periodicals  to  advo- 
cate their  theories  and  at  the  same  time  to  carry 
their  ideas  into  practice.  These  are  worthy 
efforts;  as  yet  they  are  experiments.  We  are  told 
that  the  growth  of  a  language  is  a  matter  of  gener- 
ations, that  language  has  life  like  everything  else, 
and  that  it  must  undergo  changes  despite  feeble 
human  efforts. 

But  to  return.  Happily  our  former  schoolmas- 
ter was  hired  by  the  new  organization  and  still 
took  charge  of  us.  He  was  a  gifted  young  gentle- 


BY  HIM8KLF.  29 

man,  a  writer  of  lucid  sentences  and  also  some- 
thing of  a  poet.  He  encouraged  us  greatly  in 
polishing  our  Japanese-Chinese  composition.  It 
was  his  custom  to  select  the  best  composition 
from  the  class,  on  a  given  subject,  copy  it  on  the 
blackboard  and  point  out  before  the  class  what 
elegant  epithets  could  be  substituted  for  vulgar 
ones.  It  was  a  pleasure  with  him  to  do  this, 
whereas  in  mathematics  he  did  not  show  much 
zeal.  Above  all,  he  inherited  from  his  father  the 
art  of  fine  penmanship.  His  brother,  too,  had  a 
well-formed  hand  quite  like  our  teacher's;  evi- 
dently it  was  a  case  of  hereditary  genius. 

At  times  our  beloved  master  voluntarily  offered 
to  recite  to  us  records  of  famous  battles  and  heroes 
that  adorn  the  pages  of  Japanese  history.  He  did 
this  from  the  love  of  telling  them ;  the  boys  were 
as  fond  of  hearing  as  he  was  of  telling.  He  had  in 
hand  no  book  to  help  him ;  the  gallant  exploits  of 
the  brave  and  handsome,  the  rescuing  of  the 
virtuous  fair,  the  crash,  dash  and  rush  of  horses, 
lances  and  swords  he  called  up  from  memory  and 
decked  with  his  teeming  imagination.  On  such  an 
occasion  his  language  was  prolific,  his  voice  modu- 
lated according  to  the  shifting  shades  of  the  sub- 
ject matter;  in  short,  his  whole  man,  heart  and 
soul,  went  to  the  making  of  the  story.  His  eyes 
and  expression!  they  often  told  half  his  story. 
Many  a  time  the  beUs  surprised  us  at  the  midst  of 
his  soul-stirring  recital,  and  suddenly  called  us 
back  to  the  unromantic  light  of  modern  day  and  to 
the  homely  exercises  of  school.  The  stories  were 
told  to  us  serially,  in  the  hours  of  intermission  and 


30  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

were  a  sort  of  optional  course.  They  were  so 
popular  that  very  few  were  found  playing  about 
the  grounds  when  the  eloquent  romancer  proceeded 
in  his  narrative. 

Yet  he  was  not  a  man  of  weak  indulgence  toward 
the  boys;  his  sense  of  duty  was  equally  strong. 
If  a  youngster  was  seen  undertaking  to  do  any- 
thing naughty  he  would  give  him  a  stem  look,  his 
cheeks  were  inflated,  his  eyes  showed  the  white 
plainly.  The  whole  room  was  then  silent  as  a 
tomb.  But  if  a  fun-loving  fellow  ventured,  per- 
haps, to  thrust  out  his  little  tongue  roguishly  or  let 
out  a  giggle  behind  his  hand,  then  the  teacher 
irresistibly  relaxed  the  corners  of  his  mouth,  and 
in  another  moment  the  hall  rang  with  the  hilarious 
laughter  of  reconciliation  and  good-fellowship. 

Later  I  came  under  the  instruction  of  different 
masters,  but  he  it  was  who  led  me  in  infancy  so 
carefully  by  the  hand,  as  it  were,  to  the  first  step 
of  .the  ladder  of  knowledge,  and  he  it  will  be  who 
shall  remain  the  longest  in  my  memory. 

At  school  the  common  mode  of  punishment  was 
to  let  the  culprit  stand  erect  a  whole  hour  to- 
gether, facing  his  own  class  or  a  class  in  an  adjoin- 
ing room.  Although  no  dunce-cap  was  on  his 
head,  a  roomful  of  staring  eyes  struck  a  burning 
shame  into  his  soul.  Nevertheless,  urchins  there 
were  who  considered  it  a  supreme  delight  to  be 
taken  off  the  troublesome  exercises  and  carried  to 
the  next  room  on  a  visit,  where  they  had  made 
many  acquaintances  at  a  previous  banishment. 
Indeed,  they  had  become  so  inured  to  it  that  they 
thought  nothing  of  it  afterward. 


BY  HIMSELF.  31 

Ouce  the  whole  school,  except  a  few  good  chil- 
dren, incurred  the  teachers'  displeasure.  I  have 
forgotten  what  the  offence  was ;  all  were  prevented 
from  going  home  after  school  and  ordered  to  stand 
up  till  dark,  each  with  a  bowl  full  of  water.  There 
they  stood  like  a  regiment  of  begging  saints  with 
the  bowls  in  the  outstretched  arms,  which  if  they 
moved  the  water  ran  over  the  brim,  and  the 
delinquents  would  have  been  whipped.  At  first 
we  thought  it  capital  fun,  because  so  many  were  in 
company  to  commiserate;  we  laughed  aloud, 
bobbed  and  courtesied  to  the  teachers  in  mockery ; 
but  in  time  we  had  to  change  our  minds.  The 
result  of  standing  still  like  a  statue  began  to  tell 
upon  us ;  our  limbs  began  to  ache  and  feel  stiff ; 
the  j  oiliest  member  gave  a  cowardly  sob ;  and  the 
patient  fellow  in  the  corner,  hitherto  unnoticed, 
attracted  public  attention  by  dropping  the  burden. 
The  china  went  to  pieces.  He  blubbered  out,  as  if 
that  was  sufficient  apology.  Through  the  inter- 
cession of  some  kindly  folk  we  finally  came  home 
to  supper  and  comfort. 

We  were  continually  threatened  with  another 
method  of  punishment,  though  I  doubt  if  the  teach- 
ers would  have  inflicted  it  on  us.  It  was  an  intol- 
erably cruel  one:  the  offender  was  compelled  to 
stand  up  with  a  lighted  bundle  of  senkoes  until  it 
burned  down  close  to  his  hand.  The  senko  is  a 
slender  incense  stick  burned  before  the  shrine  of 
Buddha  and  of  our  ancestors,  and  manufactured 
by  kneading  a  certain  aromatic  powder  to  a  paste 
and  squeezing  it  out  into  innumerable  very  slim, 
extremely  fragile,  brownish  rods.  When  dry,  these 


32  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

are  gathered  into  good-sized  bundles  and  put  in  the 
market.  A  few  cents  will  buy  you  more  senkoes 
than  you  need.  As  the  bundle  bums  away  slowly 
— slowly  to  prolong  the  agony,  the  fire  encroaches 
on  the  skin  and  the  flesh.  Unless  the  offender 
surrenders  himself  to  the  heartless  will  of  his 
pedagogue  he  must  suffer  injury  from  the  heat. 
This  punishment  was  actually  in  practice  in  old 
days  when  the  tyrannical  masters  had  their  way, 
but  went  out  of  fashion  at  the  dawn  of  civiliza- 
tion. 

Our  teachers  carried  flexible  sticks,  which  they 
played  with  while  teaching,  or  used  in  pointing  at 
the  maps ;  they  never  whipped  anybody  with  them 
to  my  knowledge;  but  in  going  their  rounds 
among  the  pupils,  if  any  were  engaged  in  conversa- 
tion or  in  any  way  inattentive,  flogged  the  table 
before  them  in  such  a  manner  as  to  cause  the  poor 
fellows  to  jump  into  the  air. 


BY  HIMSELF.  33 


CHAPTER  V. 

WHEN  the  close  of  a  day  called  me  home  from 
school,  and  my  father's  work  was  done,  a  sense  of 
contentment  and  repose  brooded  over  our  house- 
hold. A  vigorous  scrub  at  a  public  bath  often 
gave  our  tired  bodies  a  renewed  muscular  tone.  I 
accompanied  my  father  to  this  resort ;  when  I  was 
very  young,  my  mother  carried  me  thither.  The 
bath-house  is  a  private  establishment  of  its  pro- 
prietor, and  public  in  the  sense  that  townspeople 
betake  themselves  to  it  without  restraint.  The 
charge  is  only  a  few  mills  for  the  adult,  half  the 
amount  for  the  child  and  nothing  for  the  suckling. 
If  a  number  of  checks  (branded,  flat  pieces  of 
wood)  be  purchased  at  one  time,  the  average  charge 
is  still  less.  In  Imabari,  there  are  a  dozen  or  more 
of  these  baths;  they  mostly  occupy  the  corners 
of  the  streets  like  American  drug  stores.  They 
are  opened  from  late  in  the  afternoon  till  late  at 
night ;  on  holidays  accommodation  baths  are  ready 
at  early  daybreak.  As  soon  as  a  bath  is  in  readi- 
ness, its  keeper  places  a  flag  at  the  eaves,  in  the 
daytime,  and  a  square,  paper  lantern  after  dusk. 
At  the  entrance  is  a  stand,  where  you  deposit  your 
fare,  and  exchange  a  word  on  the  weather  with 
the  keeper  if  you  are  neighborly.  Advancing  a 
3 


34  A  JAPANESE  EOT. 

few  steps,  you  leave  your  clogs  on  a  low  platform, 
on  the  Bides  of  which  rise  tiers  of  lockers  for 
clothes.  You  must  bring  your  own  towels ;  ladies 
also  take  with  them  little  cotton  bags  of  rice-bran. 
They  close  the  bags  tightly  with  strings,  soak  them 
in  hot  water  and  rub  their  faces  and  hands  with  the 
wet  balls.  The  process  is  said  to  refine  the  texture 
of  the  skin  wonderfully. 

The  bath  proper  is  a  great,  covered  tank,  full  of 
hot  water,  with  a  terrace-work  of  planks  sloping 
down  on  the  four  sides,  where  you  sit  and  wash. 
The  ceiling  is  low  enough  to  bump  your  head  unless 
you  are  cautious ;  it  projects  forward  and  stoops  to 
prevent  the  steam  from  escaping  unnecessarily; 
therefore,  even  when  it  is  lighted  within,  it  is  twi- 
light, owing  to  the  confined  vapor.  One  feels  in  it 
as  if  working  in  a  mine  or  tunnel.  Older  men 
discuss  town  topics  and  business,  and  young  men 
hum  popular  airs  as  they  bathe,  and  intimate 
friends  press  each  other  to  rub  down  their  backs. 
The  water  is  kept  warm  by  a  huge  metallic  heater 
behind,  which  is  in  communication  with  the  tank 
but  covered  with  planks  so  as  not  to  scald  the 
bathers'  feet.  In  case  the  water  proves  too  hot,  the 
bathers  consult  each  other's  comfort  courteously, 
and  one  of  them  claps  his  hands.  It  is  answered 
by  a  sound  at  the  entrance  stand,  and  immediately 
cold  water  spouts  into  the  tank.  Then  the  men 
stir  the  tank  thoroughly  on  all  sides.  Being  but  a 
child  I  took  great  delight  in  the  excitement.  I 
would  creep  up  to  the  hole  and  plug  it  with  my 
wet  towel,  and  after  a  few  minutes  pull  it  out 
abruptly  to  see  the  water  spurt  forth  with  re- 


BY  HIMSELF.  35 

doubled  energy.  The  wall  has  usually  a  small 
door;  pushing  it  open  the  fireman  peeps  in  occa- 
sionally, when  there  is  too  much  noise.  The  first 
time  I  noticed  it,  I  was  almost  scared  out  of.  my 
wits ;  for,  happening  to  look  around,  I  saw  on  the 
dim  wall  a  grim  human  head  staring  me  in  the 
face. 

Between  the  tank  and  the  floor  is  a  space  paved 
with  large,  flat,  rectangular  stones  and  cemented 
with  mortar,  where  the  people  who  think  it  too 
close  in  the  tank  can  step  out  and  wash,  sitting  011 
long,  narrow  benches ;  in  some  baths  this  place  is 
overlaid  with  planks  in  such  a  manner  that  water 
can  trickle  down  between  them.  Here  we  may 
use  soap,  but  not  in  the  tank.  Several  small 
wooden  tubs  are  near  at  hand ;  with  them  we  pour 
the  hot  water  over  our  body  after  rubbing,  and  in 
them  we  give  our  towels  a  final  clean- water  wash- 
ing when  through  using  them.  The  clear,  cold 
water  for  the  latter  purpose  is  constantly  bubbling 
up  in  a  shallow,  well-like  enclosure  hard  by.  A 
couple  of  dippers  float  in  it,  and  the  people  also 
drink  of  the  water,  if  thirsty.  In  well-regulated 
baths,  near  the  cold-water  enclosure  is  a  hot  water 
cistern,  constantly  fed  through  a  bamboo  pipe  with 
boiling  water  that  has  not  been  used.  People  of 
cleanly  habits,  on  emerging  from  the  common 
tank,  dip  out  this  fresh,  warm,  water  and  bathe 
again.  Of  course,  it  would  be  objectionable  to 
retain  the  same  water  in  the  tank  all  day  and  have 
people  bathe  in  it  over  and  over ;  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  a  portion  of  it  is  drawn  off  at  intervals  and 
replaced  with  a  fresh  supply. 


36  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

The  ladies'  side  is  precisely  the  same  in  arrange- 
ment as  the  gentlemen's;  a  partition,  however, 
separates  them  completely. 

If  you  meet  a  man  on  the  street  in  Japan  with  a 
\vet  towel  hanging  on  his  shoulder,  he  is  from  the 
public  bath.  He  wears  no  hat  even  in  sallying 
forth  into  the  open  air  from  the  confined  atmos- 
phere, walks  leisurely  along,  dragging  the  high 
clogs  and  feeling  thoroughly  comfortable.  In  sum- 
mer evenings,  while  maidens,  mothers  and  children 
are  cooling  themselves  in  the  breeze  on  movable 
platforms  in  front  of  their  residences,  young  men 
from  the  bath  come  strolling  up,  inquire  politely 
after  their  health  and  make  themselves  agreeable. 
As  the  after-bath  garment  and  towel  are  to  be  thus 
exhibited  before  the  eyes  of  their  admirers  new 
fashions  arise  every  year  in  regard  to  them.  The 
fashion  changes  not  so  much  in  tailoring  as  in  the 
color  and  pattern. 

We  are  not  without  private  baths,  too.  Large 
aristocratic  families  are  all  provided  with  them. 
The  bath-house  is  usually  fitted  up  in  a  wing  at  the 
back  of  the  building ;  in  it  a  tub  large  enough  to 
admit  a  person  in  a  squatting  position  is  placed  on 
a  caldron.  The  loose  wooden  bottom  of  the  tub  is 
left  floating  while  the  water  boils,  serving  as  the 
cover ;  it  is  fastened  afterward.  The  head  of  the 
family  goes  in  first ;  after  him,  his  wife ;  then  come 
their  children,  beginning  with  the  eldest;  after 
them  follow  the  domestics,  ranged  according  to 
their  relative  importance. 

Evenings  at  home  ware  always  spent  very  pleas- 
antly, especially  before  my  sisters  were  married 


BY  HIMSELF.  37 

and  went  away.  There  were  four  of  them,  exclud- 
ing the  eldest  who  had  left  us  a  good  while  ago,  but 
used  to  visit  us,  and  add  to  our  gayety.  What  did 
we  do  to  enjoy  ourselves?  We  had  music  and 
dancing  very  often,  singing,  of  course,  parties  to 
which  our  best  friends  came,  games  of  cards, 
social  chat  and  fireside  talk — whatever  goes  to 
make  home  attractive.  Mother  took  great  interest 
in  them  herself ;  she  chaperoned  the  girls— we  had 
young  ladies  of  the  neighborhood  come  to  us,  and 
our  house  was  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  social  foci 
of  little  Imabari.  But  a  reverse  in  my  father's 
fortune  and  frequent  change  of  abode  put  an  end 
to  those  happy  days  of  yore. 

Japanese  dancing,  I  declare  without  prejudice, 
is  more  elaborate  and  graceful  than  your  round 
and  square  dances,  but  may  not  be  as  fasci- 
nating; ladies  and  gentlemen  do  not  dance  to- 
gether. Moreover,  our  dancing  is  not  anything 
that  can  be  picked  up  at  balls  and  receptions,  nor 
is  it  learned  by  hopping  and  skipping  at  the  danc- 
ing academy.  In  fact,  it  is  not  the  simple  keeping 
time  with  music,  not  repetitions  of  the  same  steps 
over  and  over  again ;  it  is  composed  of  posturing 
and  is  more  like  acting,  though  the  manoeuvres  are 
predetermined,  in  regular  order,  and  not  left  to 
the  dancer's  fancy.  Here  in  America  dancing  is 
easily  acquired  by  persons  who  have  an  ear  for 
music  and  grace  of  carriage,  and  after  having 
learned  to  waltz  "  elegantly  "  or  "  divinely  "  they 
have  practically  mastered  all  other  figures.  In 
Japan,  each  figure  is  emphatically  a  new  one,  and 
there  are  many,  many  figures  with  distinct  names ; 


38  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

one  cannot  learn  them  all — each  figure  requires  a 
separate  effort  for  its  mastery.  A  dauce  lasts 
twenty  minutes  or  more;  scarcely  two  steps  in  it 
seem  alike.  In  learning  a  Japanese  dance  one 
begins  with  little  tosses  of  the  head,  engaging 
.sways  of  the  body  and  easy  movements  of  the  ex- 
tremities. 

Many  young  girls  of  the  town  practised  the 
primary  exercises  in  our  house;  they  came  to  ask 
assistance  of  my  second  sister,  who  excelled  the 
rest  in  dancing.  I  see  her  vivacious  figure  trip  up 
to  a  beginner,  who  struck  an  awkward  attitude, 
and  correct  a  twist  of  the  neck  as  the  barber  and 
the  photographer  fix  their  customers'  heads.  She 
taught  my  youngest  sister  very  thoroughly  in  all 
the  dances  she  knew,  and  after  that  mother  put 
Mitsu  (that  is  the  name  of  my  little  sister)  under 
the  special  tuition  of  a  lady  who  had  just  then 
arrived  from  Osaka,  a  great  centre  of  enjoyment 
and  politeness.  The  dancing  mistress  had  a  very 
pretty  adopted  daughter  who  assisted  her,  and 
they  together  aroused  enthusiasm  among  the  peo- 
ple of  Imabari  in  the  art  of  grace.  A  society 
formed  itself  naturally  with  the  lady  as  the  nu- 
cleus, and  a  scheme  was  projected  for  a  public- 
exhibition  of  dances.  The  parents  of  the  dancing 
children  manifested  more  zeal  than  the  children 
themselves.  As  they  came  in  for  it  with  willing 
heart  and  liberal  hand,  the  scheme  was  pushed 
forward  with  surprising  rapidity.  A  mammoth 
curtain  was  made  that  was  to  be  hoisted  in  the 
theatre  where  the  brilliant  events  were  to  take 
place ;  it  had  painted  on  it  numerous  big  fans,  and 


BY  HIMSELF.  39 

on  the  fans  were  written  the  names  of  the  mem- 
bers. Myjbig  brother  was  busily  engaged  in  paint- 
ing scenes  and  constructing  apparatus,  my  sisters 
were  diligently  selecting  stage  dresses  for  Mitsu. 
And  then  the  young  ladies  met  in  our  place  to  re- 
hearse  the  dances,  songs  and  instrumental  music, 
that  made  us  still  more  agreeably  busy.  Weeks 
were  spent  in  preparation ;  and  when  it  came  off 
at  last,  the  entertainment  was  a  grand  affair  con- 
tinuing for  several  days;  the  town  turned  out  in  a 
body.  It  was  more  like  successful  theatricals  than 
anything,  and  was  repeated  once  or  twice  after- 
wards, with  the  substitution  for  the  former  dances 
of  many  equally  classical  pieces. 

All  the  dances  are  accompanied  by  songs  and 
instruments.  The  instrument  most  Commonly 
used  is  the  samisen;  it  looks  somewhat  like  a 
banjo,  but  is  much  larger  and  has  a  square  body 
instead  of  a  round  one ;  the  wood- work  is  of  ma- 
hogany. In  playing  it  the  touching  is  not  done 
with  the  fingers,  but  with  a  plectrum  of  ivory. 
The  samisen  is  capable  of  giving  out  both  the  mel- 
low notes  of  the  guitar  and  the  sharp  tone-sprays 
of  the  banjo.  You  hear  it  played  in  Japanese 
homes  to  the  same  extent  as  the  piano  is  in  this 
country.  We  had  in  our  family  two  or  three 
samisens,  and  every  day  my  sisters  practised  on 
them. 

Other  instruments  of  music  are  the  koto,  the 
tsuzumi  and  the  drum.  The  koto  is  a  heavy,  thir- 
teen-stringed  instrument,  of  which  by  mere  de- 
scription I  can  hardly  give  an  idea.  The  player 
sits  before  it,  and  with  claws  fitted  to  the  fin- 


40  A  JAVANESE  HOY. 

gers  of  botli  hands  plays  at  the  two  ends.  The 
tsuzumi  is  an  hour-glass-shaped  drum  which  is 
tapped  with  the  right  hand.  Two  tsuzumis  are 
frequently  played  by  a  single  person;  a  light 
tsuzumi  is  laid  on  the  right  shoulder  and  held  by 
the  left  hand,  and  a  heavy  tsuzumi  is  rested  on  the 
left  knee  slightly  elevated  and  pressed  down  with 
the  left  elbow ;  the  right  hand  is  free  to  move  be- 
tween the  two  tsuzumis  which  it  beats.  The  light 
tsuzumi  emits  a  soft  tone,  the  heavy  one  a  deep 
sound.  The  stroke,  unless  skillfully  performed, 
often  inflicts  a  violent  injury  to  the  fingers.  The 
vellum  of  the  tsuzumi  is  of  fox  skin  and  yellow  in 
color,  that  of  the  samisen  is  of  cat  skin  and  white  as 
snow.  The  drum  is  not  the  sort  drubbed  in  a  mili- 
tary band ;  it  is  smaller  and  more  moderate  in  its 
intonation. 

These  instruments, — the  koto,  samisen,  taiko 
(drum)  and  tsuzumi  are  frequently  played  in  con- 
cert; the  samisen  players — two  of  them,  at  anjr 
rate,  to  one  of  the  others — sing  in  high  pitch  while 
their  supple  fingers  twinkle  across  the  chords;  the 
taiko  and  tsuzumi  beaters  shriek  now  and  then  as 
they  thrum  and  whack.  Do  I  like  it?  Isn't  it 
hideous?  Well,  I  can't  say  how  it  would  strike  me 
now ;  yet  I  used  to  think  it  all  very  fine. 

There  is  another  stringed  instrument,  a  ridicu- 
lously simple  one  that  I  liked  best.  It  is  named 
ichigecckin.  A  plain  board,  a  few  feet  in  length, 
and  a  few  inches  in  width,  with  no  other  orna- 
ment than  half  a  dozen  Chinese  characters  written 
on  it  to  indicate  the  various  keys;  only  a  single 
string  along  the  Avhole  length ;  a  bamboo  ring  for 


RY  HIMSELF.  41 

the  middle  finger  oi  the  lei'l  luind  to  touch  on  the 
keys;  and  a  small  flat  piece  of  horn  to  pick  the  string 
with :  these  make  up  an  ichigecckin.  The  origin 
of  this  unpretentious  instrument  is  said  to  be  as 
follows :  a  high  court  noble  of  amiable  disposition 
and  poetic  temperament  on  his  way  southward 
from  the  ancient  palace  in  Kioto,  years  ago,  was 
obliged  to  moor  near  the  beautiful  shores  of  Akashi 
on  account  of  a  heavy  storm.  The  sea  tossed 
about  his  boat;  the  sky  stretched  gray;  the  thatch 
overhead  became  soaked  in  the  rain;  the  wind 
sighed  among  the  pines  on  the  deserted  shore.  A 
sense  of  loneliness  weighed  on  his  gentle  nature. 
The  fading  landscape  in  the  dusk,  the  mournful 
cry  of  a  sea-gull,  the  sight  of  a  boat  miles  away 
laboring  in  the  waves,  peradventure  laden  with 
lives— all  conspired  to  produce  in  him  a  sadness 
more  than  human.  In  order  to  beguile  his  ennui, 
he  constructed  himself  a  rude  musical  instrument 
with  a  board  and  string,  and  poured  out  the  feel- 
ings of  the  hour  in  many  a  celebrated  tune.  The 
ichigecckin  music  is  low  and  simple  and  sweet. 
On  rainy  nights,  when  the  candle  burns  dim  and 
all  is  quiet,  I  feel  most  in  the  mood  to  listen. 

Japanese  music  is  in  a  crude  state  of  develop- 
ment; there  are  no  written  notes  to  go  by  in 
playing,  nor  in  singing  is  there  any  system  like 
your  "Do,  Re,  Mi,  etc,"  to  depend  upon.  As  yet  it 
is  strictly  an  art  and  not  a  science ;  one  is  obliged 
to  get  it  by  observation,  imitation  and  practice. 
Music  is  taught  by  lady  teachers;  but  a  set  of 
blind  men,  who  perform  massage  for  a  livelihood, 
take  scholars,  likewise.  They  have  their  heads 


42  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

shaved,  walk  abroad  alone,  1'eeliug  their  way  with 
sticks;  some  of  them  have  been  to  Osaka  and 
Kioto  for  a  musical  degree,  conferred  on  them  in 
certain  schools.  In  Japan  music  is  not  divided 
into  the  vocal  and  the  instrumental;  the  two 
are  always  taught  together  by  the  same  in- 
structor. 

Vocal  cultivation  is  conducted  in  a  singular  way. 
During  the  winter  the  girl  in  training  clothes  her- 
self comfortably,  takes  a  samisen  and  ascends 
every  cold  night  the  scaffold  erected  on  the  roof 
of  the  house  for  drying  purposes.  There  she  sits 
for  hours  together  amid  the  howling  blasts,  singing 
defiantly  and  banging  away  courageously  at  the 
samisen.  Upon  her  coming  down,  she  is  found 
worse  than  hoarse;  she  can  hardly  utter  a  word. 
The  training  is  observed  persistently  until  her  for- 
mer voice  has  entirely  left  her  and  gradually  a 
clear  new  voice,  as  it  were,  breaks  out  in  the  harsh- 
ness. This  voice  can  stand  a  storm.  The  disci- 
pline is  now  over,  a  little  care  needs  only  to  be 
exercised  in  the  maintenance  of  the  acquired  voice. 
The  practice,  I  am  well  aware,  will  hardly  com- 
mend itself  to  the  gentlewomen  of  this  republic, 
who  are  wrapped  all  winter  long  in  furs  and  seal- 
skins and  would  not  think  for  a  moment  of  leaving 
the  chimney  corner.  In  my  fancy  I  hear  them  re- 
pel it  with  their  passionate  "  What  an  idea!'' 
Therefore,  I  conclude  it  prudent  to  say  nothing  in 
praise  of  the  barbarous  measure,  and  simply  state 
the  plain  fact  that  it  has  produced  many  an  Apollo 
in  Japan.  In  the  other  seasons  of  the  year,  after 
having  screamed  out  her  worthless  voice,  the  girl 


BY  HIMSELF.  4.'} 

takes  a  dose  of  pulverized  ginger  and  sugar  to  tone 
up  the  vocal  chords. 

I  digressed  from  dancing  to  music;  now  I  wish 
to  return  to  dancing  again  for  a  few  moments.  In 
parlor  gatherings  and  sociables  light  pieces  are  pre- 
sented; and  such  small  things  as  fans,  towels, 
masks,  umbrellas,  bells,  tambourines  only  are  used 
in  dancing.  Fans  are  most  commonly  used,  many 
astonishing  tricks  being  played  with  them.  The 
guests  sit  in  a  body  off  the  arena,  where  the  dancer 
steps  out;  the  samisen  player  tunes  the  instru- 
ment on  one  side.  The  preliminary  chords  ring; 
then  come  the  words  in  song,  and  in  accordance  with 
them  the  actions  of  the  dancer.  The  dances  in- 
tended for  the  stage  are  much  more  elaborate. 
Scenes  are  to  be  fitted  up ;  varieties  of  gew-gaws, — 
artificial  flowers,  falling  paper  snow,  fallen  woolly- 
cotton  snow,  painted  waves,  the  outline  of  a  boat, 
a  lantern  moon,  a  gilded  paper  crown,  baskets, 
shells,  a  wooden  scythe,  a  toy  tub,  high  clogs, 
yards  of  white  silk,  etc.,  etc., — are  to  be  procured. 
These  vain,  empty  articles  rise  up  in  my  mind,  for 
I  used  to  see  them  stowed  away  in  the  dusty  garret. 
They  were  jostled  about  by  other  things,  lay  in 
everybody's  way,  became  mutilated,  and  fully  re- 
paid the  glory  they  had  received  one  night  behind 
the  foot-lights.  We  have  spent  time  and  money 
in  getting  them  up,  however;  certain  things  we 
have  even  sent  for  to  Osaka  or  Kioto.  I  remem- 
ber seeing  my  sister  practise  day  after  day  dancing 
with  the  aforementioned  long  white  silk  scarfs. 
The  dance  was  to  represent  the  process  of  bleach- 
ing by  a  famous  maiden  (named  Okanei  who 


44  A  JAPAS&HE  no  y. 

dwelt  beside  Lake  Biwa.  Of  all  sorts  of  waves  and 
undulations  and  flutterings  she  had  to  produce 
with  them  I  recollect  one: — it  is  to  shake  one  scarf 
right  and  left  horizontally  overhead,  and  the  other 
up  and  down  longitudinally  in  front.  Try  it  with 
your  hands  and  see,  reader;  you  will  find  it  no  easy 
task.  In  the  stage  dances  the  dancers  must  dress 
true  to  the  conceptions  of  the  characters  they  un- 
dertake to  represent.  This  necessitates  a  large 
wardrobe,  though  the  gorgeous  costumes  are  gen- 
erally made  of  cheap  materials,  and  the  aid  of 
artificial  lights  is  expected  to  finish  off  the 
effects.  The  face  of  the  dancer  is  usually  painted, 
but  not  so  much  so  as  that  of  a  professional  actress. 
The  whole  affair,  however,  savors  strongly  of 
stage-play.  Several  persons  sometimes  dance  to- 
gether, carry  on  dialogues  and,  indeed,  dance  part 
of  a  play  or  drama. 


BY  HIMSELF.  45 


CHAPTER  VI. 

OUR  best  friends  were  not  limited  to  ladies,  but 
comprised  several  select  gentlemen.  In  Japan  we 
have  more  social  freedom  than  people  are  apt  to 
think.  Many  of  the  young  gentlemen  entertained 
us  well.  Some  were  beautiful  singers,  others  fine 
musicians,  and  still  others  elegant  dancers.  One 
among  them,  a  person  of  fine  appearance  who  fell 
in  love  with  the  dancing  teacher's  pretty  daughter 
and  who  afterward  married  her,  was  quite  highly 
accomplished.  He  possessed  artistic  tastes,  prob- 
ably inherited  from  his  father,  who  was  an  art 
connoisseur — art,  as  it  appeared  in  china  wares, 
scrolls,  kakemonoes  (wall  hangings),  old  bric-a- 
brac,  etc.  The  young  man  could  sketch,  talk 
brilliantly,  render  gentlemen's  dances  creditably, 
and  was  handsome  to  look  at.  He  used  to  pay  us 
respects,  for  his  parents,  particularly  his  cheery 
bright-eyed  little  mother,  was  a  dear  friend  of 
ours,  and  his  sisters  were  great  friends  of  my 
sisters.  The  girls  went  to  sewing  school  together. 
You  know,  as  we  do  not  have  the  sewing  machine 
and  as  we  are  to  a  certain  extent  our  own  tailors 
and  dressmakers,  Japanese  girls  must  take  lessons 
in  sewing,  as  American  young  ladies  take  lessons 
in  painting  and  on  the  "piano.  They  do  "crazy" 


46  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

work  and  fancy  work,  too,  and  talk  over  their 
notions  extravagantly,  rashly  confide  everything 
to  each  other,  and  exclaim  "  lovely!  "  in  Japanese. 

This  young  man  felt  from  his  childhood  a  passion 
for  the  stage.  As  he  grew  up  his  dramatic  taste 
became  irresistible ;  at  last,  escaping  the  vigilance 
of  his  family,  he  ran  away  to  the  neighboring  prov- 
ince of  Tosa  (ours  is  lyo),  and  committed  himself 
to  the  care  of  a  noted  actor  named  Hanshiro.  The 
young  man  told  us  how  he  had  been  launched  in 
tHe  work ;  the  actor-apprentice,  when  admitted  to 
the  stage,  is  obliged  to  put  on  rags  and  help  make 
up  the  mob  or  a  gang  of  thieves.  In  order  to  make 
a  hero's  power  appear  greater  by  contrast,  it  is  a 
stage  trick  in  Japan  that  the  mob,  thieves,  and 
characters  of  that  sort  should  turn  somersaults  at 
the  hero's  simple  lifting  of  his  hand.  It  is  a  sight 
to  be  seen  when  a  swarm  of  them  around  one  brave 
person  turn  in  the  air  and  light  safely  upon  their 
feet ;  they  do  it  so  very  deftly  that  they  must  prac- 
tice a  great  deal.  Our  friend  first  practiced  the  acro- 
batic feat  on  a  thick  quilt  for  fear  that  he  might 
break  his  neck.  In  time,  however,  he  could  do  it 
on  the  hard  wooden  stage  floor.  After  filling  this 
gymnastic  role  for  some  time,  he  was  promoted  by 
degrees  to  more  important  posts.  By  reason  of  his 
personal  attractions  he  was  at  his  best  as  a  gallant 
youth.  I  have  observed  many  a  fair  spectator 
flush  visibly,  heave  gentle  sighs  and  watch  him  in 
absorption  while  he  delivered  a  love  soliloquy  in  a 
clear  voice. 

He  did  become  an  actor  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the 
term  and  a  creditable  one,  too;  but  having  satisfied 


BY  HIMSELF.  47 

his  long  cherished  desire  for  once  (a  space  of  sev- 
eral years),  he  obeyed  the  paternal  summons  and 
returned  home.  He  then  went  into  business  and 
fairly  settled  down  to  earnest  life.  Nevertheless, 
at  times  his  roving  nature  got  the  better  of  him, 
and  the  young  man  would  be  missed  from  homo. 
Soon  the  news  arrives  from  somewhere  that  he  is 
displaying  his  dramatic  talents  with  a  theatrical 
company  to  the  utmost  delight  of  the  people,  and 
that  the  showers  of  favors  and  tokens  of  their  ap- 
preciation visit  him  constantly.  But  the  manner 
in  which  his  aged  parents  take  the  affair  is  by  it- 
self a  bit  of  good  comedy.  They  bemoan  them- 
selves over  their  son's  unsteady  life,  and  often  in 
their  visit  to  us  seek  our  condolence.  Notwith- 
standing the  apparent  sorrow,  whenever  their  boy 
has  been  heard  to  make  a  ' '  decided  hit  "  none  are 
more  pleased  than  they.  The  old  couple,  being 
themselves  fond  of  gayety,  extended  a  helping, 
willing  hand  to  the  dancing  society  wherein  their 
son  moved  actively.  It  was,  indeed,  under  the 
supervision  of  the  good  old  gentleman  that  the 
huge  curtain  was  completed;  I  think  he  designed 
and  painted  it  mostly  by  himself. 

Our  young  friend's  presence  in  town  naturally 
gave  rise  to  a  race  of  amateur  actors.  One  of  them 
particularly  I  recall  Avith  great  interest  on  ac- 
count of  his  diverse  accomplishments ;  he  tried  his 
hand  at  almost  every  trade.  I  believe  certain  pecu- 
liarities in  his  childhood  induced  his  parents  to  put 
him  in  a  monastery.  He  grew  up  a  studious  boy, 
but  indulged  not  infrequently  in  pranks.  Suddenly 
in  his  early  manhood  it  dawned  upon  him  that  he 


48  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

was  richly  endowed  with  the  stage  gift;  accord- 
ingly, he  left  the  temple  behind,  and,  after  clerking 
a  while  in  his  brother's  store  across  the  street  from 
us,  appeared  on  the  stage.  His  versatile  nature 
did  not  keep  him  long  in  that  vocation ;  he  soon 
sobered  down  to  a  shoemaker,  discovering  that  the 
bread  earned  by  the  sweat  of  the  brow  was  more 
to  his  satisfaction.  That  is,  I  concluded  so  in  his 
case;  he  may  have  found,  for  aught  I  know,  that 
by  acting  (such  as  his)  he  could  not  make  a  decent 
living  and  therefore  had  better  quit  playing.  He 
was  not  long  in  making  another  discovery,  and 
that  was  that  the  drudgery  of  the  shop  did  not 
exactly  suit  his  refined  tastes.  At  all  events,  he 
must  take  a  little  air  sometimes ;  he  would  go  about 
the  streets  selling  greens ;  yes,  that  was  a  splendid 
plan,  combining  trade  and  exercise.  And  so  he 
turned  a  vegetable  vender  this  time,  nobody  re- 
garding it  a  too  humble  occupation  in  such  a  small 
community  as  ours.  Later  he  became  an  amazake 
man.  The  amazake  (sweet  liquor)  is  prepared  by 
subjecting  soft  boiled  rice  to  saccharine  fermenta- 
tion and  checking  the  process  just  at  the  point 
where  the  sugar  gives  up  its  alcohol.  Hence  it  is 
sweet,  palatable  and  very  popular  with  children. 
We  brewed  some  at  home— the  home-brewed: 
My  mother  had  hard  work  to  satisfy  the  large 
family  of  thirsty  mouths. 

Our  man  of  all  trades  went  about  asking  the 
public  in  all  the  notes  of  the  gamut,  if  they  would 
not  tickle  their  palates  with  his  honest  ' '  sweet 
liquor.1'  To  be  always  on  foot  as  an  itinerant 
tradesman,  however,  proved  too  much  for  his  con- 


BY  HIMSELF.  49 

stitution.  I  will  not  take  it  upon  me  to  enumerate 
in  what  other  things  he  tried  his  hand ;  I  hasten 
on  to  inform  my  curious  reader  that  he  shaved 
his  head  again  and  joined  the  priesthood,  perfectly 
content  with  his  diverse  worldly  experiences.  In 
spite  of  his  fickleness  he  was  an  honest  fellow  and 
passed  for  a  tolerable  humorist  among  his  friends. 
There  was  another  of  the  number,  the  keeper 
of  the  tavern  at  the  foot  of  a  bridge  that  spans  the 
little  stream  running  through  Imabari  town.  His 
figure  was  tall,  imposing,  and  his  expression  dis- 
posed one  to  suspect  him  of  a  malicious,  bitter 
character.  Nature  is  often  capricious;  she  was 
certainly  capricious  in  this  instance,  for  into  this 
mould  of  a  man  she  had  infused  a  nature  the  most 
complacent  and  the  most  obliging.  His  comrades 
assigned  him  the  part  of  a  villain  or  a  cruel  lord. 
To  the  eye  familiar  with  his  every -day  life  he 
figured  helplessly  as  a  villain  with  a  good  heart,  and 
seemed  to  spare  unnecessary  stabs  at  his  victim. 
Yet  he  was  scrupulously  conscientious  in  the  exe- 
cution of  his  role;  not  a  word  would  he  omit  in  his 
speech.  Once  in  playing  a  wicked  lord,  in  order  to 
assist  the  memory  he  copied  his  entire  part  on 
the  face  of  a  flat,  oblong  piece  of  wood,  which  he 
had  all  the  time  to  bear  erect  before  him  as  an 
ensign  of  authority.  At  first  on  the  stage  he  was 
wonderfully  eloquent,  not  a  flaw  occurred  in  his 
long  speech.  But  unfortunately  in  the  midst  of  an 
invective  the  sceptre  slipped  off  his  hand.  His 
lordship's  confusion  was  not  to  be  described.  He 
paused  as  if  to  give  an  effect  of  indignation,  then 
tried  to  think  of  the  rest  of  the  harangue;  it  did 
4 


50  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

not  come.  The  pause  was  prolonged  to  his  own 
uneasiness  as  well  as  to  his  friends.  He  now  cast 
about  for  a  decent  means  of  taking  himself  off  the 
stage.  Finally  with  a  calm,  venerable,  haughty 
air,  amid  giggles  and  suppressed  laughter,  my  lord 
stalked  off  behind  the  scene. 

Through  these  people  we  became  acquainted 
with  several  professional  players.  Some  people  in 
Japan  become  quite  enthusiastic  over  their  favor 
ite  actors  and  wrestlers;  they  present  them  with 
beautiful  posters,  on  which  are  stated  their  gifts, 
exaggerated  above  their  actual  value.  These  post- 
ers are  pasted  on  all  sides  of  the  theatre  or  the 
arena  for  display.  At  the  entrance  to  the  house  of 
amusement  stands  a  tower,  where  a  small  drum  of 
very  high  pitch  is  struck  for  some  time  previous 
to  the  opening  of  the  performance.  The  admission 
to  the  theatre  ranges  from  five  to  twenty -five  sens 
(cents).  The  stage  and  the  inside  as  a  whole  are 
much  larger  than  any  metropolitan  or  local  play- 
house that  I  have  seen  in  America.  I  admit  that 
most  of  our  theatres  are  neither  carpeted  nor  fur- 
nished with  chairs,  nor  are  they  lighted  with  gas. 
nor  heated.  The  parquet  is  divided  into  pits  by 
bars,  each  admitting  barely  four  persons  in  a  squat- 
ting position;  the  bars  can  be  removed,  uniting 
the  small  pits  into  one  large  pit  of  any  dimensions, 
if  a  party  so  desire.  There  are  also  what  will  corre- 
spond to  the  dress  circle  and  the  family  circle. 
They  do  not  protrude  over  the  parquet,  but  simply 
line  the  walls  like  balconies.  In  the  parquet  the 
floor  is  not  raised  at  the  end  farther  from  the 
stage;  therefore,  if  Japanese  ladies  were  to  wear 


BY  HIMSELF,  51 

tall  hats  it  would  be  the  doomsday  for  gentlemen : 
but  luckily  the  fair  members  of  our  community 
take  no  pride  in  the  towering  head  ornaments: 
really  they  wear  none.  I  have  been  speaking  as 
if  the  parquet  were  floored ;  in  fact,  you  have  to 
sit  close  to  the  ground,  mats  and  quilts  of  your 
own  providing  alone  protecting  you  from  the 
damp  earth. 

The  people  bring  lunch  with  them  to  eat  between 
the  acts.  I  have  the  fond  remembrance  of  my 
family  astir  over  the  preparation  of  the  lunch  on 
the  day  we  go  to  see  a  play.  We  must  take  things 
we  shall  not  be  ashamed  of  spreading  before  the 
public;  and  all  the  more  must  we  be  careful  in 
selecting  our  dishes,  for  not  infrequently  we 
beckon  to  our  acquaintances  in  the  audience  to 
pass  away  with  us  the  usual  long,  wearisome 
intervals  of  the  Japanese  theatre,  during  which 
time  no  music  is  played  as  in  the  American 
theatre.  Of  course,  we  must  take  boiled  rice;  it 
is  our  bread.  Nobody  thinks  of  forgetting  the 
bread.  It  is  not,  however,  carried  in  its  bare, 
glutinous  form;  it  is  made  into  triangular,  round 
or  square  masses  and  rolled  in  burned  bean 
powder.  In  the  collation  at  the  theatre  we  dis- 
pense with  the  bowls  and  chopsticks,  and  use 
fingers  in  picking  up  the  mouthfuls  of  rice.  Of 
various  other  dishes  I  give  up  the  cataloguing  in 
despair,  for  my  ingenious  countrywomen  regale 
us  with — the  Lord  knows  how  many  kinds.  The 
delicacies  are  packed  in  several  lacquered  boxes, 
and  the  boxes  piled  one  over  another  and  wrapped 
in  a  broad  piece  of  cloth,  whose  four  corners  are 


52  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

then  tied  on  the  top.  When  the  savory  burden  is 
being  carried,  there  usually  dangles  by  it  a  gourd 
full  of  sake.  The  Japanese  world  takes  no  note 
of  drinking;  the  sake  is,  moreover,  mild,  and, 
although  sipped  on  all  occasions  as  freely  as  tea,  is 
seldom  drunk  to  excess. 

Next  to  the  refreshment  preparation  is  the  get- 
ting ready  of  the  girls.  They  spend  half  their  life 
in  dressing.  I  never  was  very  patient ;  in  waiting 
for  them  I  was  exasperated.  They  would  lean  over 
against  the  glass  (or  in  reality  a  metallic  mirror) 
in  the  Yum- Yum  fashion  for  an  interminable 
period  of  time,  tying  the  girdles  over  fifty  times  be- 
fore deciding  upon  one  style,  touching  and  retouch- 
ing the  coiffures,  and  practicing  the  exercise  of 
grace.  "Oh,  hurry  up!"  I  cry  repeatedly  in  in- 
finite chagrin,  and  at  last  become  irritated  beyond 
decency,  when  my  mother  in  her  persuasive,  firm 
manner  desires  me  to  know  that  there  is  time 
enough.  I  always  acquiesced  in  mother's  deci- 
sions, because  I  did  not  like  to  have  her  call  in  the 
assistance  of  father.  I  can  tell  you  what  he  would 
do !  He  would  not  say  a  word ;  he  would  curtly 
command  me  to  sit  beside  him  in  the  store,  where 
people  could  look  at  me— my  tears,  sobs,  quivering 
lips  and  all  the  rest  of  the  woe.  Out  of  shame  in 
the  exposure  I  would  gradually  compose  myself, 
and  not  till  I  had  fully  recovered  my  temper 
would  my  father  release  me.  I  think  he  never 
struck  me  or  my  brother  anywhere ;  the  only  time 
I  saw  him  use  force  was  in  holding  fast  my  little 
brother,  who  once  undertook  some  brave  proceed- 
ings against  him. 


BY  HIMSELF.  53 

The  theatre  usually  begins  late  in  the  afternoon 
or  early  in  the  evening,  and  lasts  till  past  midnight. 
In  front  of  the  stage  are  two  large  basins  of  vege- 
table oil  with  huge  bunches  of  rush-wicks.  They 
are  the  main  sources  of  light ;  the  foot-lights  are  a 
row  of  innumerable  wax-candles;  and  when  an 
actor  is  on  the  stage,  men  in  black  veils  attend  him 
with  lighted  candles  stuck  on  a  contrivance  like  a 
long-handled  contribution  box.  Wherever  he  goes, 
there  go  with  him  these  walking  candlesticks. 
When  he  exerts  himself  briskly,  as  in  a  combat, 
with  what  funny  jerks  and  fanciful  motions  do 
these  mysterious  lights  fly  round,  often  flickering 
themselves  out!  In  the  era  of  gas  and  electric 
light  what  a  bungling  machinery  all  this  is ! 

The  orchestra  does  not  sit  at  the  foot  of  the  stage ; 
it  occupies  a  box  on  one  side.  It  consists  of  the 
samisen,  a  big  heavy  bell,  a  drum,  a  flute,  a  conch 
shell  and  occasional  singing.  Over  the  orchestra- 
box  is  a  compartment  hung  with  a  curtain  woven 
with  fine  split  bamboos,  wherein  sit  two  men — one 
with  a  book  on  a  stand,  the  other  with  a  stout 
samisen.  The  former  explains  in  a  harsh-voiced 
recital  the  situation  of  the  affairs  now  acted  before 
the  audience,  the  latter  keeps  time  with  the  instru- 
ment. 

The  dramas  are  mostly  historical;  we  have  no 
opera.  In  Japanese  plays  the  passion  of  love  takes 
but  a  subordinate  rank,  the  paramount  importance 
being  accorded  to  loyalty,  the  spirit  of  retaliation 
and  devotion  to  parents.  Harakiri,  or  the  cutting 
open  of  one's  own  abdomen  in  way  of  manly  death, 
so  time-honored  and  deeply  believed  in  among 


54  A  JAPANESE  HOY. 

the  ancient  samurai  (soldier)  class,  is  acted  in  con- 
nection with  certain  plays.  It  i.s  an  impressive, 
solemn  scene.  The  valiant  unfortunate  stubs  him- 
self with  a  poniard,  measuring  exactly  nine  inches 
and  a  half,  struggles  with  agony,  shows  manifold 
changes  of  expression,  makes  his  will  in  a  falter- 
ing voice,  and  leaves  injunctions  to  the  weeping 
relatives  and  faithful  servants  gathered  round  him ; 
writhing  in  distress,  yet  undaunted  in  presence  of 
cool,  examining  deputies,  he  ends  his  mortal  life  by 
the  final  act  of  driving  the  blood-stained  iron  into 
the  throat. 

One  strange  fact  respecting  the  theatrical  profes- 
sion in  our  country  is  the  anomaly  that  men  act 
women's  parts.  We  have  few  or  no  actreases.  The 
taste  of  the  people  took  a  curious  turn  in  its  de- 
velopment ;  they  consider  those  actors  perfect  who 
can  deceive  them  most  dexterously  in  female  out- 
fits. Acting  has  been  from  ages  past  regarded  as 
a  profession  exclusively  for  men;  their  wives 
travel  with  them  as  a  sort  of  slave  in  assisting 
their  masters  and  husbands  in  painting  and  dress- 
ing behind  the  scene.  Therefore,  once  when  a 
company  of  women  went  about  giving  entertain- 
ments there  was  a  considerable  stir  over  the  nov- 
elty; they  soon  became  known  as  the  "female 
theatre."  In  this  party  there  were  few  or  no  men. 
the  women  assuming  male  characters.  These 
actresses  established  fame  on  their  wonderfully 
natural  delineations  of  masculine  traits. 

We  have  known  a  young  actor,  whose  boyhood 
was  spent  in  Imabari.  make  a  mark  in  representing 
female  characters.  He  copied  the  grace  and  de- 


SY  HIMSELF.  55 

pertinent  of  the  fair  sex  archly.  We  took  grout 
interest  in  him,  for  he  was  a  good,  quiet,  sensible 
fellow,  and  his  parents  had  formerly  dwelt  near 
and  befriended  us.  But  my  friends  were  wont  to 
comment  that  his  neck  was  a  jot  too  full  for  that  o! 
a  female.  He  could  not  help  that ;  the  corpulency 
of  that  member  was  a  freak  of  nature;  he  was  not 
at  all  responsible  for  it.  Discreetly  he  tried  none 
of  your  fooleries  with  dieting  to  reduce  it ;  some 
females,  you  know,  are  not  very  slender-necked 
either ;  he  might  have  taken  comfort  in  that.  At 
any  rate,  his  manners  were  thoroughly  feminine, 
and  his  womanly  way  of  speaking  a  woman  her- 
self could  not  imitate.  Our  friend  is  now  gone  to 
a  metropolis,  where  he  is  winning  his  way  into  the 
hearts  of  the  millions.  Prosperity  and  success  to 
his  name ! 

When  the  ' '  female  theatre  "  troupe  was  in  Ima- 
bari,  through  somebody's  introduction  we  got 
acquainted  with  certain  of  their  number.  We 
asked  them  to  call  at  our  house.  They  did  so. 
We  observed  no  trace  of  forwardness  in  them;  in- 
stead, they,  all  of  them,  seemed  quite  reticent.  I 
remember  a  dear  little  creature,  Kosei  (Little 
Purity)  by  name,  among  them.  She  was  perfectly 
at  ease  in  playing  a  rollicking  little  rogue  before 
the  crowd,  but  now  hung  her  head  timidly  and 
lifted  stealthily  her  big  round  eyes  to  us.  She 
had  a  sweet,  pretty  little  mouth.  Where  can  that 
poor,  mischievous,  pretty  waif  be  knocking  about 
in  the  wide  world  now-a-days?  Perhaps  she 
is  grown  up  and  uninteresting,  if  yet  living. 

I  can  recall  even  what  we  gave  them  that  even- 


56  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

ing  with  which  to  refresh  themselves.  We  ordered 
the  zenzai  or  its  ally,  the  shiruko,  at  the  establish-, 
merit  round  the  corner.  The  shiruko  seems  like 
hot,  thick  chocolate,  with  bits  of  toast  in  it.  The 
chocolate  part  is  prepared  of  red  beans,  and  the 
toast  is  the  browned  mochi  (rice-cake).  To  pro- 
vide for  any  among  them  that  did  not  love  sweet 
things  we  had  the  soba  or  the  udon  brought  to  us 
by  their  vender.  The  soba  is  a  sort  of  vermicelli 
made  of  buckwheat,  and  the  udon  a  kind  of  maca- 
roni, solid  and  not  in  tubes.  The  warm  katsuwo 
sauce  is  plentifully  poured  over  them,  and  they 
are  eaten  with  chopsticks.  The  katsuwo  sauce  is 
prepared  of  the  katsuwobushi  and  the  shoyu.  The 
first  named  article  is  a  hard  substance  shaped 
somewhat  like  the  horn  of  an  ox,  and  manufac- 
tured of  the  flesh  of  certain  fish,  whose  vernacular 
name  is  katsuwo.  A  family  cannot  get  along  with 
out  it.  In  preparing  the  sauce,  the  katsuwobushi 
is  simply  chipped  and  simmered  in  a  mixture  of 
water  and  the  shoyu.  The  shoyu  is  a  sauce  by 
itself  and  brewed  of  wheat,  beans  and  salt.  As 
its  use  in  domestic  cookery  is  very  wide,  the  de- 
mand for  it  is  correspondingly  great;  and  the 
shoyu  brewing  is  as  big  a  business  as  the  sake 
manufacturing. 


BY  HIMSELF.  57 


CHAPTER  VII. 

OUR  family  cared  but  little  for  the  wrestling  ex- 
hibition ;  some  people  have  a  great  liking  for  it.  It 
takes  place  on  an  extensive  open  lot.  In  the  middle 
of  the  field  is  raised  a  large,  square  mound,  from 
the  corners  of  which  rise  four  posts  decorated  with 
red  and  white  cloths,  looking  like  a  barber's  sign. 
They  support  an  awning.  The  spectators,  too,  are 
shielded  from  the  sun  with  cheap  mats  strapped 
together.  On  the  mound  is  described  a  circle, 
within  which  the  matches  take  place.  The  two 
opposite  parties  are  called  East  and  West  respect- 
ively. The  umpire  in  kamishimo  (ceremonial 
garb)  calls  out  a  champion  from  each  side  by  his 
professional  name  so  loudly  as  to  be  heard  all  over 
the  place.  The  names  are  derived  from  the  mighty 
objects  in  nature,  sucli  as  mountain,  river,  ocean, 
storm,  wind,  thunder,  lightning,  forest,  crag,  etc. 
The  two  naked,  gigantic,  muscular  fellows  slowly 
ascend  the  arena,  drink  a  little  water  from  ladles, 
take  pinches  of  common  salt  from  small  baskets 
hanging  on  two  of  the  posts  and,  looking  up  rever- 
ently to  a  paper  god  fastened  to  the  awning,  throw 
the  salt  around.  It  is  an  act  of  purification,  and 
while  doing  it  each  prays  secretly  for  his  own 
success.  Then  they  stamp  heavily  on  the  ground, 


68  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

with  their  hands  on  their  bent  knees  and  their  hips 
lowered,  in  order  to  get  the  muscles  ready  lor 
action.  Now  they  face  each  other  in  a  low  sitting 
posture  like  that  of  a  frog;  at  the  word  of  signal 
from  the  umpire  they  instantly  spring  up,  and 
each  tries  to  throw  the  other  or  push  him  out  of 
the  circular  arena.  There  are  many  professional 
tricks  that  they  deal  out  in  the  struggle  for  suprem- 
acy. As  soon  as  the  point  is  decided  the  umpire 
indicates  the  victor's  side  with  his  Chinese  fan. 
Then  follows  the  demonstration  of  joy  among  the 
patrons  of  the  successful  almost  as  boisterous  and 
enthusiastic  as  that  of  the  young  American  colle- 
gians at  their  grand  athletic  contests.  The  thou- 
sands sitting  hitherto  well  behaved  on  the  matted 
ground  rise  up  at  once  and  make  endless  tumult ; 
cups,  bottles,  empty  lacquered  boxes  fly  into  the 
arena  from  every  direction.  Not  infrequently  a 
spirited  controversy  follows  a  questionable  decision 
of  the  umpire.  Between  the  matches  gifts  from 
the  patrons  are  publicly  announced  and  sometimes 
displayed. 

The  people  sit  on  the  ground,  spread  with  mats, 
in  the  open  air,  and  eat  and  drink,  while  they 
watch  the  collision  of  the  two  mountains  of  flesh 
and  its  momentous  issue.  The  exhibition  cannot 
very  well  take  place  on  rainy  days.  At  the  end  of 
a  day's  performance,  all  the  wrestlers  in  gorgeous 
aprons  march  to  the  arena  as  the  umpire  claps  two 
blocks  of  hard  wood,  and  go  through  a  simple  cere- 
mony of  stretching  the  arms  in  various  directions 
formally.  1  never  inqiiired  what  it  was  for,  my 
childish  fancy  having  been  turned  towtird  the 


BY  HIMSELF.  59 

aprons,  which  were  oriental  gold  embroidery- work 
in  relief  on  velvet,  plush  and  other  kinds  of  cloth. 
On  the  way  home  the  spectators  notice  on  the 
fences  the  announcement  of  the  matches  for  the 
morrow.  At  the  close  of  a  series  of  the  contests, 
which  continue  about  three  days,  the  favorite 
wrestlers  go  the  round  of  their  patrons  in  fiiu> 
silk  garments. 

We  were  fond  of  listening  to  story-tellers.  The 
entertainment  takes  place  at  night  in  a  public  hall. 
A  company  of  story-tellers  travel  together  under 
the  name  of  their  leader.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
evening  the  unskillful  members  come  out  in  turn, 
and  serve  to  kill  time  and  practice  on  the  audience. 
On  the  platform  there  is  nothing  to  be  seen  but  a 
low  table  and  a  candle  burning  on  each  side  of  it. 
A  narrator  appears  from  behind  the  curtain  on  the 
back  of  the  platform,  and  sits  at  the  table  on  a 
cushion  and  makes  a  profound  bow.  Then  he  takes 
a  sip  of  tea,  stops  the  samisen  playing  by  banging 
upon  the  table  with  two  fans  wrapped  in  leather ; 
he  murmurs  a  courteous  welcome  to  the  audience, 
bows  repeatedly,  and,  after  snuffing  the  candles, 
proceeds  with  a  story.  The  stories  are  chiefly 
humorous  or  witty  until  toward  the  end  of  the 
evening,  when  the  abler  men  make  their  appearance 
and  the  tenor  of  the  narrative  insensibly  takes  on 
a  serious  aspect  and  a  tragic  interest.  The  comic 
stories  invariably  terminate  with  sprightly  puns, 
the  tragic  in  a  spectacular  representation  of  ghosts 
and  spirits.  An  awful  tale  of  murder,  let  us  sup- 
pose, has  been  told  in  an  impressive  manner ;  and 
while  the  imaginary  murderer  and  the  actual  lis- 


60  A  JAPANESE  HOY. 

teners  are  seeing  strange  sights  in  fancy,  the  nar- 
rator unobserved  turns  down  the  lights  and  tum- 
bles off  the  platform.  In  the  following  darkness 
the  ghosts  stalk  in  a  ray  of  pale  light ;  they  are  the 
story-tellers  themselves  in  masks,  and  they  some- 
times walk  down  the  aisles  to  the  terror  of  those 
that  believe  in  them.  I  could  not  bear  the  roving 
apparitions, — I  was  small  indeed, — and  took  refuge 
in  the  lap  of  my  elder  companion,  much  as  cer 
tain  birds  hide  their  heads,  and  think  themselves 
safe.  No  doubt  such  sights  as  these  worked  in  my 
infant  imagination,  and  roused  in  me  that  dread  of 
darkness  which  is  so  common  with  the  children  of 
Japan. 

On  fine  days  in  spring  our  neighborhood  went 
out  en  masse  on  excursion  parties.  They  roamed 
about  the  warm  green  fields  at  will  and  gathered  in 
hand-baskets,  half  dallying  with  the  sunbeams, 
various  kinds  of  wild  herbs  which  are  tender  and 
edible,  or  they  feasted  in  a  charming  nook  under- 
neath the  canopy  of  cherry  blossoms.  The  pink 
petals  of  the  full  blown  flowers,  fanned  by  a  gentle 
breath  of  wind,  visited  the  merry-makers  like 
snow-flakes;  a  single  flake  occasionally  happening 
to  fall  in  the  tiny  earthen  cup  of  sake,  held  up  by 
one  who  stopped  and  talked  or  laughed  jitst  as 
he  was  putting  it  to  his  lips.  The  party  was  won- 
derfully pleased  at  that;  if  they  were  a  poetical 
club  or  artistic  coterie  such  little  accidents  perhaps 
elicited  short  rhythmical  effusions  from  them, 
which  they  would  pen  on  beautiful  variegated 
cards  expressly  cut  for  the  purpose.  These  would 
be  tied  to  the  drooping  branches,  that  the  next 


BY  HIMSELF.  61 

party  might  pause  to  share  in  the  sentiment  of  the 
present  instance.  More  frequently,  however,  this 
is  done  to  leave  some  token  of  the  culture  and  re- 
finement of  the  clique,  or  to  show  off  the  individ- 
ual's finish  of  hand  and  elegance  of  expression. 
Vanity  is  at  the  bottom  of  it. 

We  sat  on  the  scarlet  Chinese  blanket,  spread  on 
the  greensward ;  wine  made  every  heart  buoyant ; 
the  happy  crew,  by  and  by,  sang,  played  the  sami- 
sen  and  tripped  ' '  the  light  fantastic  toe. "  In- 
deed, nothing  could  call  us  home,  after  such  enjoy- 
ment of  a  beautiful  day,  but  the  reddening  western 
sky  and  the  falling  shades  of  night. 

At  Imabari  we  have  an  excellent  public  garden 
in  the  ruins  of  the  old  castle.  In  spring  when  all 
the  cherry  trees  bloom  in  full  force,  the  scene,  sur- 
veyed at  a  distance,  looks  like  the  piles  of  white 
cloud  in  the  blue  summer  sky.  You  must  know 
the  Japanese  cultivate  the  cherry-tree  not  for  its 
fruit,  but  for  the  beauty  of  its  flowers.  If  the  tree 
bears  fruit,  it  is  bitter  to  the  taste,  worse  than 
your  choke-cherries;  nobody  stops  to  pluck  it. 
When  past  the  height  of  blooming,  the  flowers 
begin  to  leave  the  boughs  quietly;  later  they  fall 
abundantly  and  quickly,  and,  alighting  on  the  dirt 
below,  cover  it  like  a  sheet  of  snow.  Trite  as  this 
description  may  appear,  it  has  yet  a  charm  for  me ; 
for  the  happy  time  I  spent  under  those  blossoms, 
in  that  mellow  sun  and  that  soft  open  air,  steals 
back  imperceptibly  in  my  memory. 

In  the  centre  of  the  garden  stands  a  shrine  of  the 
Shinto  gods.  The  entire  ground  is  considerably 
elevated  above  the  level  of  the  surrounding  regions, 


62  A  >fA PA NESE  BOY. 

and  stone  walls  hem  it  in.  A  belt  of  deep  ditches, 
which,  in  the  warlike  days  of  old,  stemmed  the  rush 
of  an  invading  army,  girdles  the  base  of  the  steep 
walls.  The  neglect  of  years,  passed  in  peace,  has 
left  it  in  disrepair.  To  some  of  the  trenches  the 
ebb  and  flow  of  sea- water  have  still  access,  and 
swarms  of  big  fish  and  little  fish  thrive  unmo- 
lested, for  none  but  the  people  that  pay  for  the 
privilege  are  permitted  to  angle  in  these  fish-ponds. 
There  are  also  fresh-water  moats;  the  beds  of 
green  pond-weeds  and  duck's  meat  closely  patch 
the  sluggish,  dark-colored  waters.  Here  grows  the 
famous  lotus  plant  of  the  East.  It  shoots  up  its 
broad  umbrella-like  leaves  in  summer,  and  on  the 
stalks  here  and  there  among  the  leaves  open  the 
Buddhist's  pure  majestic  flowers. 

Having  heard  that  the  buds  unlock  in  an  instant 
at  early  dawn  with  the  noise  of  percussion,  we,  the 
curious,  formed  a  little  party  for  the  purpose  of 
investigating  the  truth  of  it.  We  arose  a  little 
after  midnight,  gathered  together  the  pledged  and 
groped  our  way  in  the  dark ;  we  could  scarcely  dis- 
cern one  another.  By  the  time,  however,  we 
arrived  at  our  destination,  it  was  close  upon  day- 
break; a  party  at  the  further  end  of  the  bank 
showed  darkly  against  the  aurora  of  the  eastern 
sky,  for  the  country  round  was  open  and  nothing 
stood  between  us  and  the  sea.  We  kept  vigil 
intently;  for  my  part  I  failed  to  observe  any  of  the 
buds  open;  having  watched  a  great  many  at  the 
same  time  I  really  watched  xione.  A  clever  person 
instructed  me  that  my  whole  attention  should  be 
paid  to  a  single  bud ;  for  which  reason  I  the  next 


BY  HIMSELF.  60 

time  pitched  upon  one  particular  bud.  I  kept  my 
eye  on  it  all  the  morning,  looking  neither  to  the 
right  nor  to  the  left.  I  was  once  before  provoked 
at  a  spiral  bud  of  morning-glory  in  my  garden, 
because  it  intentionally  unfurled  upon  me  when  I 
was  looking  aside.  Accordingly,  I  took  especial 
care  against  such  failure  on  my  part;  but  it  all 
proved  vain — the  lotus  bud  was  too  young  to  blos- 
som ! 

The  flowers  are  very  large ;  white  is  the  common 
color,  but  then  there  is  a  rare  lovely  pink  shade. 
The  plant  bears  edible  fruit;  the  root,  too,  is 
counted  a  delicacy.  By  reason  of  the  unknown 
depth  of  the  black  mud,  wherein  the  roots  lie  hid- 
den, the  plucking  of  them  is  very  difficult;  the 
men  formerly  held  in  contempt  under  the  name  of 
Etta  dive  in  the  mire  and  search  for  them.  The 
prized  article  is  seen,  immersed  in  water,  in  gro- 
cery stores  on  sale ;  no  feast  of  any  pretension  is 
complete  without  it.  When  sliced  crosswise  the 
renkon  (lotus  root)  shows  about  half-a-dozen 
symmetrical  holes;  the  slices  are  boiled  with  the 
katsuwo  and  shoyu  and  are  valued  highly  for 
toothsomeness. 

Some  of  the  wide  ditches  were  filled  up  from 
time  to  time;  and  in  the  places  where  fishes  had 
frisked  about  or  warriors  tried  to  float  a  raft, 
farmers  were  now  peacefully  hoeing  potatoes,  or 
pumpkins  basked  their  heads  in  the  noontide  sun. 
But  the  castle,  being  too  colossal  to  be  pulled  down 
at  once,  remained  entire  for  a  long  time,  after  the 
feudal  system  had  been  abolished  and  the  Lord  of 
Imabari  summoned  to  Yedo.  Unfortunately,  how- 


64  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

ever,  the  extensive  underground  powder  magazine 
one  morning  caught  a  spark  of  fire,  and  all  of  a 
sudden  the  towers  and  palaces  blew  up  with  a  tre- 
mendous explosion.  At  that  period  the  Japanese 
apprehended  the  possible  invasion  of  the  "red- 
haired  devils,"  the  foreigners;  for  which  reason  it 
was  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  patriotic  citi- 
zens of  Imabari  mistook  the  earth-rending  roar 
and  the  heavy  ascending  columns  of  smoke  in  the 
direction  of  the  old  stronghold  for  a  cannonade  of 
enemies.  The  panic  it  produced  in  town  struck 
terror  into  everybody's  heart;  the  weak  and  ner- 
vous fell  into  fits.  A  drizzling  rain  since  the  pre- 
vious eve  rendered  the  streets  excessively  wet. 
Splashing  in  the  mud  and  puddles,  the  heroic  of 
the  townsmen,  with  the  loose  dangling  skirt  of  the 
Japanese  garment  tucked  up  through  the  belt  for 
action,  hurried  castleward  with  the  utmost  speed, 
with  unsheathed  spear  and  sword  in  hand,  to  the 
great  consternation  of  the  astounded  populace.  I 
was  scarcely  of  an  age  to  comprehend  the  dire 
calamity,  yet  the  scene  impressed  me  indelibly. 
Soon  the  vision  of  foreign  hairy  invaders  vanished ; 
the  people  saw  that  it  was  a  sheer  accident,  fearful 
as  it  was;  but  in  that  ancient  lax  administration 
behind  the  screen  of  cruel  rigidity,  the  real  cause 
of  it  has  never  been  thoroughly  investigated. 
Lives  were  lost  in  the  disaster,  for  a  multitude 
of  servants  still  lived  in  the  castle.  Mutilated 
limbs  and  bodies  were  subsequently  picked  up  in 
abundance  from  the  surrounding  moats ;  the  feat- 
ures of  many  were  too  badly  marred  for  identifica- 
tion: and  as  to  the  severed  limbs  no  one  could 


BY  HIMSELF.  65 

tell  which  belonged  to  which  of  the  shattered 
trunks. 

The  remaining  half -burned  buildings  have  since 
been  destroyed  piecemeal ;  all  that  now  remains  of 
the  proud  castle  is  the  innermost  circle  of  masonry, 
which  cannot  so  easily  be  leveled  to  the  ground. 
It  is  not  provided  with  a  railing,  and  in  looking 
down  the  steep  one  feels  his  heart  stand  still.  The 
vast  prospect  it  commands,  extending  far  beyond 
the  town  limits,  is  superb.  A.  man  taking  the  path 
directly  below  the  wall  appears  no  bigger  than  a 
dot. 

Since  I  have  begun  a  long  story  about  this  grand 
ruin,  give  me  leave  to  recount  a  tradition  in  con- 
nection with  it.  Back  in  the  dark  ages  the  super- 
stitious belief  existed  in  Japan,  that  in  building  a 
castle,  to  secure  the  firmness  of  its  foundation  a 
human  life  should  be  sacrificed.  Usually  a  person 
was  buried  alive  beneath  one  of  the  walls;  some 
declare  the  efficacy  nullified  unless  the  victim  be 
taken  in  unawares.  The  chronicle  says,  that  in 
conformity  to  the  above  belief  when  the  Imabari 
castle,  was  being  raised  a  horrible  homicide  had 
been  committed.  At  first  the  authorities  were 
much  at  a  loss  in  the  choice  of  a  proper  offering. 
One  day  a  poor,  decrepit  old  woman,  either 
prompted  by  curiosity  or  to  beg  money  of  the  men, 
approached  the  work ;  little  did  she  dream  her  life 
was  in  peril ;  in  an  instant  a  sagacious  magistrate 
solved  the  problem.  The  signal  nod  from  him, 
and  the  castle-builders  fell  upon  the  crone  and, 
amid  her  screams,  struggles,  entreaties,  stoned  her 
to  the  earth.  Henceforward,  it  is  said,  in  the  dead 
5 


66  A  JAPANESE  nor. 

silence  of  the  castle  at  night  a  faint,  pitiful  cry, 
now  drowned  in  the  soughing  storm  outside,  now 
audible  in  the  dreadful  pause,  echoes  from  under 
the  ground.  I  had  the  precise  spot  pointed  out  to 
me;  it  lies  in  the  centre  of  all  the  outlying 
bulwarks ;  in  passing  it  I  always  felt  a  thrill  steal 
through  me,  and  turned  that  corner  at  a  greater 
angle  than  I  would  an  ordinary  corner,  with  the 
intention  of  keeping  my  feet  off  the  buried  bones. 

In  those  tyrannical  days  of  feudalism  the  samu- 
rais presumed  much  upon  the  commoners  of  the 
town.  They  not  only  laid  claim  wrongly  to  their 
personal  property,  but  also  regarded  their  lives  as 
of  no  importance.  The  samurai  always  carried 
two  swords  by  his  side,  one  long  and  one  short,  to 
arbitrate  right  and  wrong  in  altercations.  Blades 
tempered  by  certain  smiths  were  particularly 
esteemed ;  and  in  order  to  test  the  cutting  edge,  he 
would  lie  in  wait  nightly  at  a  street  corner  for  a 
victim.  An  innocent  passer-by  was  ferociously 
attacked  and,  unless  he  could  defend  himself,  was 
wantonly  slain.  Such  outrages  actually  occurred 
in  places;  people,  forthwith,  seldom  stirred  abroad 
nights.  Heaven  be  thanked,  those  savage  times 
are  gone  forever ;  the  street-lamps  light  every  nook 
and  corner,  and  the  police  guard  the  safety  of  the 
citizen. 


BY  HIMSELF.  6? 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MY  mother  is  fond  of  parties  and  young  people 
and  their  keen  appreciation  of  pleasure ;  my  father 
is  of  a  far  different  turn-  of  mind ;  he  has  his  happi- 
est moments  in  smoking  leisurely,  in  manipulating 
the  fishing-rod  and  line,  under  the  shielding  pine- 
tree,  by  some  quiet  river-bank,  or  in  hunting  out 
edible  mushrooms  in  the  mountains.  He  is  a 
respectable,  practical  Izaak  Walton;  quaint  rip- 
ples of  smile  pass  across  his  face  as  the  nibbling 
fish  gives  his  line  a  tantalizing  pull ;  he  helps  me 
bait,  he  teaches  me  when  and  how  to  make  sure  of 
my  spoil, — for  many  a  victim  hangs  to  the  hook 
just  long  enough  to  rise  out  of  water,  glitters 
transiently  in  the  sun  "and  thrills  one  with  joy, 
and  then  decides,  undeceived,  to  reject  the  dainty 
morsel :  there  rises  an  ever  widening,  ever  reced- 
ing circle  on  the  still  liquid  surface,  a  golden  flap 
of  the  tail,  and  the  fish  is  invisible,  leaving  one 
despondent.  I  liked  mother's  and  sisters'  com- 
pany, but  also  appreciated  father's  soothing,  restful 
influence.  At  the  simple  repast  in  the  open  soli- 
tary scene  of  the  field  and  stream,  after  angling  all 
the  morning,  he  said  little ;  yet  the  expression  of 
calm  enjoyment  and  honest  humor  on  his  face 
brightened  his  companion.  Those  were  delightful 


68  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

times;  I  have  the  scene  at  this  moment  before 
my  mental  eye : — the  broad  beach  of  white  sand 
surrounding  the  cove,  where  the  river  meets  the 
sea,  with  a  lonely  stork  standing  on  one  leg  in 
shallow  water ;  the  briny  odor  from  the  sea,  and 
the  fresh  scent  from  the  meadow;  the  sighing 
pines  overhead  and  the  turbulent  water  at  the 
stone  abutments  of  the  bridge;  the  sunny  blue 
sea  beyond  the  sand-bar,  studded  with  white  sails ; 
a  huge  cloud  of  smoke  swaying  landward,  rising 
from  the  distant  brick-yard;  and  in  the  grayish- 
blue  background  the  silhouette  of  a  grove  and 
knoll,  whereon  a  wayside  shrine  stands. 

"See  what  you  can  do  about  here,"  says  my 
father,  taking  in  his  line,  "  I  shall  follow  the  river 
up  and  find  if  they  bite."  He  turns  his  back  and 
disappears  and  reappears  among  the  scrub  oaks 
and  stunted  willows  that  fringe  the  margin.  I 
stay  where  I  am  like  a  good  son;  but  being  no 
more  successful  than  before,  and  bored  and  Avish- 
ing  company,  after  a  reasonable  lapse  of  time,  I 
find  myself  going  after  my  father.  Upon  finding 
him  quietly  seated  under  some  protruding  tree, 
beneath  whose  mirrored  branches  and  near  whose 
knotty  root  the  water  darkens  in  a  pool,  I  inquire 
into  his  success.  "No,  nothing  marvelous,"  he 
responds  gently,  gazing  dreamily  across  the  river, 
yet  wary  with  the  fish  that  ' '  cometh  as  a  thief  in 
the  night."  I  take  the  liberty  of  lifting  the  lid  of 
his  basket  and  peep  at  the  contents;  a  large  troiit 
disturbed  by  the  jar  I  gave  it,  snaps  violently — I 
let  down  the  lid  instantly  at  that--and  then  it  lies 
exhausted,  working  its  jaw  in  anguish  for  water. 


/;  r  HIMSELF.  09 

"  Cast  your  fly  and  try  your  luck,"  says  my  excel- 
lent father.  Of  course  I  obey  him ;  and  although 
I  was  not  so  successful  every  time  as  he,  yet  could 
not  always  help  observing  privately  that  the  loca- 
tion he  had  selected  was  a  good  fishing  hole. 

The  river  I  have  in  mind  has  a  characteristic- 
oriental  appellation  given  it — Dragon-fire.  It  is  a 
small  stream  at  a  short  distance  from  the  town  of 
Imabari,  having  its  fountain-heads  in  the  valleys  of 
the  mountains  visible  from  the  mouth.  There  is 
nothing  remarkable  about  this  water-course,  ex- 
cept a  popular  belief  that,  on  the  eve  of  a  festal 
day  in  honor  of  the  temple  situated  on  one  of  the 
mountains,  a  mysterious  fire  rises  from  the 
enchanting  "dragon-palace"  in  the  depths  of  the 
ocean,  where  a  beautiful  queen  reigns  supreme 
over  her  charming  watery  world  with  its  finny 
and  scaly  subjects  of  various  species.  The  myste- 
rious light,  casting  an  inverted  image  on  the  water, 
moves  steadily  up  the  river,  under  the  concen- 
trated gaze  of  thousands  who  climb  the  height 
partly  as  devotees  but  mostly  as  spectators,  until 
it  reaches  a  massive  stone  lantern  erected  upon 
the  ledge  of  an  immense  cliff.  There  it  vanishes 
as  strangely  as  it  appeared ;  and  instead  the  lantern, 
hitherto  dark,  lights  up  suddenly. 

I  dislike  to  question  the  reality  of  this  astonish- 
ing phenomenon,  or  try  to  explain  it  with  my 
superficial  knowledge  of  physics.  A  very  pious, 
gracious  old  lady  in  our  neighborhood  had  always 
a  ready  listener  in  me  in  her  superstitious  talks 
concerning  the  wonders  and  charitable  doings  of 
the  Goddess  of  Mercy,  whom  she  had  imposingly 


"0  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

enshrined  in  her  apartment  and  adored  unceas- 
ingly. Perhaps  you  would  wish  to  know  what  the 
goddess  looked  like.  Well,  it  was  a  small  bronze 
statuette  in  a  gilded  miniature  temple ;  she  wore  a 
scanty  Hindoo  costume,  a  halo  around  her  head 
and  an  expression  gentle,  sweet,  serene,  godly. — 
You  have  seen  a  reproduction  of  the  ideal  Italian 
picture  of  Christ,  with  downcast  eyes  and  a  look  of 
meek  submission,  benign  tenderness  and  forgive- 
ness :  the  Goddess  of  Mercy  seemed  quite  like  that 
but  with  slightly  more  authority.  Another  con- 
ception of  the  pagan  goddess,  which  I  have  seen 
elsewhere,  represents  her  as  possessing  countless 
arms,  signifying,  I  imagine,  the  countless  deeds  of 
mercy  she  achieves  for  mankind. 

The  good  old  lady  did  not  feel  satisfied  with 
the  home  worship;  she  must  play  the  pilgrim, 
in  spite  of  years  and  infirmities,  and  visit,  at 
least,  the  nearest  public  temples.  So  she  set 
off  with  her  company,  a  circle  of  aged  zealots 
like  herself,  on  a  journey  to  a  sacred  edifice  stand- 
ing somewhere  in  the  mountain  which,  in  fair 
weather,  shows  faintly  against  the  sky  west  of 
Imabari,  towering  far  above  hills  and  heights  of 
nearer  distances.  The  way  is  long  and  tedious 
and  lies  through  rocky  regions.  Difficult  passes 
and  precipitous  declivities  were  left  far  behind  by 
assiduous  traveling  on  foot ;  but  the  party  lost  the 
way,  wandered  into  mountain  wilds,  silent  and 
sublime,  far,  far  from  home  or  any  human  habi- 
tation; and  there  was  nothing  to  be  heard  but  the 
Hocks  of  rooks  cawing  inauspiciously  among 
the  tree-tops.  The  day  advanced  rapidly ;  the  sun 


BY  HIMSELF.  71 

wheeled  down  without  tarrying,  and  in  the  track- 
less forest  the  evening  gloom  gathered  early. 
Mute  admiration,  commingled  with  despair,  seized 
the  travelers  as  they  surveyed  the  forest  grandeur 
in  its  twilight  robe.  The  unpruned  trees  thrust 
out  dry  broken  arms  from  near  the  roots;  the 
leaves  sere  and  sodden  covered  the  damp,  black 
soil  ankle  deep  rustling  under  the  tread. 

The  sunset,  how  glorious!  Our  travelers  threw 
down  their  walking-sticks,  stretched  out  their  tired 
limbs  and,  seated  on  rocks,  spell-bound,  gave  them- 
selves up  to  the  contemplation  of  the  magnificent 
fire-painting  in  the  western  firmament.  Behold 
the  mountains  of  living  coal,  the  lakes  of  molten 
gold,  the  islands  of  floating  amber,  all  irregularly 
shaped  as  by  a  wild  genius,  distributed  not  as  on 
the  earth's  surface, — a  mountainous  pile  super-im- 
posed on  a  lake  with  a  stratum  of  sapphire  between ! 
At  length,  the  whole  melted  into  one  grand  univer- 
sal conflagration ;  the  undulating  tops  of  the  dis- 
tant mountain-chain-  appeared  boldly  against  the 
horizon;  the  needles  and  cones  of  a  pine  branch, 
pendant  near  by  in  the  line  of  vision,  depicted 
themselves  sharply  on  the  canvas  of  crimson 
splendor. 

Insensibly  to  our  musing  friends,  however,  the 
red  sinking  disc  finally  departed  by  the  western 
portal,  the  after-glow  died  away  slowly ;  and  when 
they  awoke  from  reveries  and  heaved  a  sigh,  the 
question  of  what  to  be  done  came  pressing  upon 
them.  Now  the  day  being  over,  there  was  the 
danger  of  wild  animals  in  the  woods.  That  could 
be  averted  by  building  a  bright  fire,  but  what  was 


72  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

to  be  done  for  hunger  which  began  to  assert  itself 
strongly?  With  energy  gone  and  darkness  and 
peril  thickening  about  them,  yet  trusting  in  the 
Goddess,  the  lonely  pilgrims  peered  around  for  a 
less  exposed  spot  to  nestle  in.  In  this  their  search, 
miraculously  they  came  upon  what  to  them  looked 
like  a  cottage.  It  was  one  of  the  hovels  hastily 
put  up  with  twigs  and  shrubs  by  hunters,  where 
they  waylay  the  boar  at  night  and  in  snow,  and 
where  they  slice  meat,  lie  by  the  fire  and  smoke, 
and  frequently  hold  a  midnight  revel  over  their 
fat  game.  Our  weary,  almost  famished  tourists 
entered  it,  wondering  and  looking  around  at  each 
step ;  they  were  at  once  struck  with  the  snug  ap- 
pearance of  the  interior.  There  was  a  heap  of 
ashes,  which  when  disturbed  disclosed  a  few  glow- 
ing embers ;  and  in  a  corner  was  piled  on  raw  hide 
plenty  of  excellent  venison.  The  hunters  must 
have  left  not  long  since. 

The  pious  old  lady  goes  on  to  tell  that  such  a 
thing  as  this  could  not  have  been  otherwise  than 
by  the  dispensation  of  her  merciful  Goddess,  and 
that  she  and  her  fellow  believers  fell  immediately 
on  their  knees  to  express  their  heart- felt  gratitude 
for  her  munificence  and  protection.  The  fire  was 
rekindled  and  fed  with  armfuls  of  the  dried  leaves 
and  dead  branches  that  lay  strewn  plentifully 
around ;  the  broad  blaze  cast  an  illusive  cheerful- 
ness on  objects  standing  near ;  each  time  a  stick 
was  thrown  in  the  cloven  tongues  of  the  fire 
emitted  sparks,  which  died  in  their  flight  among 
the  masses  of  the  overhanging  foliage.  Taken  in 
connection  with  the  surrounding  scene,  there  was 


BY  HIMSELF.  73 

something  inexpressibly  wild  and  primitive  about 
the  open  fire.  The  party  appeased  their  hunger 
and  waited  the  return  of  the  proprietors  of  the 
rude  cottage.  They  did  not  come,  though  the 
night  advanced  far;  some  of  the  pilgrims  were 
extremely  fatigued  and  dropped  to  sleep  in  the 
warmth,  others  sat  up  resolutely,  repeating  pray- 
ers and  counting  the  beads  before  a  pocket  image 
of  the  Goddess.  The  low  night  wind  bore  to  their 
ear,  at  intervals,  the  concert  of  wolves  howling  in 
dismal,  forlorn  cadence;  and  they  were  now  and 
then  started  by  one  of  these  savage  marauders  ap- 
pearing in  their  sight  at  a  safe  distance. 

The  night  was  passed  in  this  way,  and  the  dawn 
came;  but  how  to  find  the  right  path?  While 
they  were  in  despair  and  supplicating  aid  from  the 
Goddess,  one  of  them  descried  a  figure  on  the  brow 
of  an  eminence  not  far  distant.  It  seemed,  on 
nearer  approach,  to  be  a  venerable  mountain  sire ; 
his  long  silver- white  beard  flowed  down  his  breast ; 
a  pair  of  clear  beaming  eyes  twinkled  beneath  his 
great  shaggy  eyebrows.  Being  asked  in  which 
point  of  the  compass  lay  the  road  to  the  temple,  he 
slowly  lifted  his  cane,  a  knotty  stem  of  a  shrub 
called  akaza,  and  indicated  the  west.  Apropos  of 
this,  the  akaza  stick  is  believed  to  be  carried  by  an 
imaginary  race  of  men  hidden  in  China's  pathless 
woods  and  mountains,  who  are  without  exception 
very  old  but  never  overtaken  by  disease  or  death 
and  live  in  serene  felicity,  gathering  medicinal 
herbs,  writing  on  scrolls  and  in  company  with 
cranes  and  tortoises.  In  kakemonoes  (wall  hang- 
ings) they  are  sometimes  depicted  as  taking  a 


74  A  JAPANESE  HOY. 

literal  ' '  flying "  visit  on  craneback,  with  the 
inevitable  scroll  in  hand,  to  their  brother  sennin's 
(sennin  is  the  name  this  happy  race  goes  by)  grotto 
in  a  neighboring  hill  or  dale. 

Our  party  of  wanderers  thanked  the  kind  but 
dignified  old  man  on  their  hands  and  knees  and 
raised  their  heads,  when  he  seemed  to  dissolve 
away  from  view  in  a  most  singular  manner.  This 
opportune  guide,  according  to  my  garrulous  lady, 
is  a  messenger  sent  by  her  thousand-armed  God- 
dess to  their  help ;  in  fine,  not  a  thing  occurs  but  is 
ordained  by  Kwannon  the  Merciful.  The  story  of 
the  adventure  was  wound  up  with  the  safe  arrival 
in  the  Kwannon  temple,  and  fervent  piety  kindled 
at  the  altar. 


BY  HIMSELF. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

I  AM  afraid  I  have  told  a  long  prosaic  story  in 
the  previous  chapter,  and  betrayed  a  school-boy- 
like  delight  for  the  bombastic  in  the  description  of 
the  sunset,  etc.  No  one  detests  more  than  I  any 
thing  that  smacks  of  the  young  misses'  poetry. 
Come,  let  us  inquire,  more  relevantly  to  our  pur- 
pose, what  constituted  my  childish  happiness,  sor- 
row, fear  and  other  kindred  feelings  in  Japan. 

The  greatest  fear  I  can  yet  recall  was  the  ordeal 
of  the  yaito.  This  is  a  Japanese  domestic  art  of 
healing  and  averting  diseases,  especially  those  of 
children.  The  moxa,  being  made  into  numerous 
tiny  cones  and  placed  on  certain  spots  on  the  back, 
is  lighted  with  the  senko  already  described.  Im- 
agine how  you  feel  when  the  flesh  is  being  burnt ; 
I  used  to  hold  out  stoutly  against  the  cruel  opera- 
tion— would  you  not  sympathize  with  me  ?  If  I 
had  any  presentiment  of  it,  I  would  slip  away  and 
keep  from  home  till  I  became  desirous  of  dinner. 
No  sooner  had  I  crossed  the  paternal  threshold  than 
I  was  made  a  prisoner ;  and  ailment  or  no  ailment, 
my  severe  father  and  mother  insisted  upon  my 
having  the  yaito  once  in  so  often.  Great  was  my 
demonstration  of  agony  when  father  held  me  still 
and  mother  proceeded  to  burn  my  bare  back;  a 


?T>  A  JAPANESE  HOY. 

promise  of  bonbons,  which  reconciled  me  to  almost 
anything  ordinarily,  did  not  work  in  this  one  in 
stance ;  I  cried  myself  hoarse  (keeping  it  up  even 
while  there  was  no  pain)  and  kicked  frantically. 
' '  The  storm  is  over, "  mother  used  to  say  with  con- 
siderable relief ,  when  the  trial  drew  to  a  close ;  she 
hated  the  torture  as  much  as  anybody,  but  she  had 
the  welfare  of  her  child  at  heart.  Ah,  gentle 
mother,  if  I  had  only  understood  you  then  as  I  do 
now  I  should  certainly  not  have  snapped  so  terribly. 
I  remember,  after  twenty-four  to  forty-eight  hours 
the  blisters  began  to  swell  and  chafed  painfully 
against  the  clothing,  and  had  to  be  punctured  to 
let  out  the  serum.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  yaito 
did  cure  slight  general  and  local  ailments:  once  I 
had  a  blood-shot  eye,  and  mother  sent  me  to  a 
worthy  old  woman  in  town  who  knew  how  to  cure 
it  by  means  of  yaito.  After  much  pressing  with 
lingers,  she  hit  at  the  vital  point  in  the  back  and 
marked  it  with  a  generous  dip  of  india  ink.  Upon 
returning  home,  it  was  burnt  deeply  with  moxa ; 
and  miraculously  enough  the  eye  got  well  immedi- 
ately. I  am  inclined  to  think  the  cautery  acts 
through  the  nerves.  Now  for  years  have  I  been 
exempt  from  the  operation,  yet  to  this  day  on  my 
back  are  symmetrically  branded  the  star-like  me- 
morials of  my  mother's  love. 

Speaking  of  the  old  woman  I  am  reminded  of 
another  whom  I  was  in  the  habit  of  looking  upon  as 
a  sort  of  witch.  Her  eye,  with  the  crow's  foot  at  the 
outer  corner  and,  I  fancied,  with  the  pupil  in  a 
longitudinal  slit  like  that  of  grimalkin,  the  creature 
nearest  to  witches  and  warlocks:  her  fetich,  the 


BY  HIMSELF.  77 

image  of  a  human  monkey,  to  whom  she  was  a  sort 
of  vestal  virgin ;  her  place  of  abode  remote  from 
town  and  isolated  from  other  farm-houses,  present- 
ing a  queer  combination  of  a  rustic  home  and  a 
sacred  shrine ;  these  made  my  childish  imagination 
invest  her  with  an  air  of  mystery.  She  was  wont 
to  come  to  town  in  trim,  made-over  clothes  re-dyed 
and  starched,  with  the  slant  overlapping  Japanese 
collars  adjusted  nicely;  in  the  setta  (slipper-san- 
dals, much  liked  by  aged  people  for  their  ease  and 
safety  compared  with  the  high  clogs);  with  her 
gray-streaked  black  hair  combed  tightly  up,  glossy 
with  a  superabundance  of  pomatum  and  done  up  in 
a  coiffure  bespeaking  her  age ;  walking  firmly,  with 
a  small  portable  shrine  on  her  back  wrapt  in  the 
furoshiki  (wide  cloth  for  carrying  things  about) 
and  tied  around  her  shoulders.  People  sent  for  her 
to  exorcise  their  houses,  particularly  when  there 
happened  to  be  sick  persons  in  them,  consulted  her 
in  selecting  the  site  for  a  new  building  and  in  sink- 
ing the  well,  in  order  not  to  draw  upon  their  heads 
the  vengeance  of  a  displeased  spirit.  On  some  oc- 
casions our  household  required  her  assistance;  I 
went  the  long  distance  through  the  open  fields  to 
her  residence ;  and  when  she  came  she  let  down  the 
shrine  from  her  back,  placed  it  against  the  wall  in 
our  sitting-room  and,  opening  reverentially  the 
hinge-doors,  proceeded  to  pray.  What  for,  I  don't 
remember,  I  was  too  intent  upon  her  manners  to 
inquire  into  her  purpose. 

Of  quite  another  stamp  was  Aunt  Otsune  (so 
everybody  called  her),  housekeeper  to  the  prosper- 
ous cnndy  dealer  just  opposite  us  on  Main  street. 


78  A  JAPANESE  HOY. 

Ready  with  tears  for  any  sad  news;  sympathetic 
in  the  extreme;  beaming,  radiant,  full  of  happy 
smiles  in  beholding  her  friends — methinks  I  see 
her  snatch  me  from  my  nurse's  arms,  fondle  me  to 
her  bosom  and  press  her  withered  cheek  against 
my  fat  one,  uttering  some  such  very  encouraging 
ejaculation  as  "My  precious  dear!"  She  did  not 
kiss  me,  I  am  very  certain,  for  we  don't  have  kiss- 
ing. And  she  must  have  many  a  time  dropped  her 
work  to  admire  my  holiday  garment;  I  know  I 
toddled  some  of  my  early  experimental  steps  in 
journeys  to  Aunty,  trailing  behind  me  the  free* 
ends  of  my  sash ;  and  as  I  became  confident  of  my- 
self, I  became  ambitious  and  dragged  my  father's 
or  brother's  clogs,  a  world  too  big  for  my  feet.  O 
how  good  Aunty  was!  She  would  fill  both  my 
hands  with  the  candies  that  were  being  prepared  in 
the  back  of  the  store  near  the  kitchen  and  bid  me 
run  home  and  show  them  to  mamma.  The  best 
thing  she  was  in  the  habit  of  bestowing  upon  me  was 
—I  don't  know  what  to  call  it ;  it  Avas  the  burnt  bot- 
tom portion  of  the  rice  she  had  cooked  for  all  hands 
of  the  store  in  a  prodigious  vessel,  loosened  in  broad 
pieces  and  folded  about  the  an.  The  an  is  (this 
necessity  of  definition  upon  definition  cautions  me 
against  touching  on  many  a  thing  peculiarly  Jap- 
anese) the  an  is  a  red  bean  deprived  of  its  skin  and 
mashed  with  sugar;  it  forms  the  core  of  various 
comfits.  O  how  I  relished  this  Aunt}r's  homely, 
warm,  sweet  concoction !  It  was  not  intended  for 
sale,  therefore  we  cared  little  about  its  appearance, 
were  it  only  good  to  taste.  She  made  it  so  large 
sometimes  that  I  had  to  hold  it  with  both  mv  small 


BY  HIMSELF.  79 

hands.  I  munched  away  at  it,  whilst  she  scraped 
the  great  vessel ;  and  it  was  sometime  before  each 
of  us  could  finish  our  huge  tasks.  I  well  recall  the 
flickering  rush-light  under  which  Aunty  worked : 
the  sense  of  satisfaction  I  experienced  in  my  agree- 
able occupation  in  my  corner;  the  harsh  grating 
noise  of  the  steel  scraper  against  the  bottom  of  the 
iron  vessel ;  the  obscurity  round  about  the  sink  a 
short  way  off ;  and  the  invisible  rascals  of  mice  hold- 
ing high  festivity  over  cast-off  viands,  chasing  each 
other,  biting  one  another's  tails  and  screeching 
at  the  pain.  My  family  endeavored  to  keep  me 
at  home,  for  it  certainly  is  not  in  good  taste  to 
have  one's  child  running  off  to  a  neighbor's 
kitchen ;  but  Aunty  would  steal  me  from  mamma, 
and  I,  for  my  part,  did  all  I  could,  I  warrant,  to  be 
stolen ! 

When  we  are  well-nigh  through  our  business, 
Aunty,  happening  to  glance  at  me  to  assure  her- 
self I  am  there  though  silent,  breaks  into  a  broad, 
good-humored  smile  at  the  sight.  Here  I  am  with 
the  an  smeared  about  my  mouth,  and  stretching 
out  my  hands  equally  sticky,  in  a  most  comic  des- 
pairing attitude.  What  I  implore  in  mute  eloquence 
is  this,  that  she  would  please  to  take  immediate 
care  of  my  soiled  hands  and  wipe  off  the  material 
about  my  mouth.  Aunty  stands  a  minute  appre- 
ciating the  humorous  effect  so  produced ;  I  look  up 
at  her  with  unsuspecting  eyes  wide  open  and  licking 
my  mouth  occasionally  by  way  of  variation.  Soon. 
however,  my  good-hearted  Aunty  washes  me  nice 
and  clean  and  taking  me  up  with  her  hands  on  my 
sides,  throws  me  on  her  right  shoulder  and  crosses 


80  ^  JAPANESE  BOY. 

over  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  street  in  short 
quick  steps  to  our  house.  She  is  always  a  welcome 
guest  there  and  is  at  once  surrounded  by  our 
women,  to  whom  she  imparts  her  kitchen  lore  and 
latest  bits  of  news  about  men  and  things. 

She  had  a  little  romance  in  her  kitchen,  which 
she  helped  along  and  she  took  absorbing  interest  in 
its  development.  It  was  the  mutual  attachment 
of  the  adopted  daughter  of  the  great  candy  manu- 
facturer and  one  of  his  men.  Miss  Chrysanthe- 
mum, to  give  a  glimpse  of  her  past  history,  was 
born  in  a  humble  home  and,  being  a  burden  to  its 
inmates,  was  thrust  upon  Mr.  Gladness  the  Main 
street  confectioner,  who  was.  immensely  wealthy, 
and  invested  for  pleasure  in  peacocks,  canary  birds, 
white,  long-eared,  pink-eyed,  lovely,  tame  rabbits, 
valuable  pot-plants  and  many  other  good  things. 
I  received  beautiful  peacock  feathers  from  him; 
but  my  sisters  did  not  wish  them  for  their  bonnets, 
because  Japanese  ladies  do  not  wear  bonnets.  (But 
I  don't  know,  of  course,  as  I  am  a  man  and  a  for- 
eigner, that  ladies  ever  trim  their  bonnets  with  the 
gay  peacock  feathers.)  And  when  the  peacocks 
died,  Mr.  Gladness  (his  Japanese  equivalent  means 
it)  caused  them  to  be  stuffed  and  surprised  me  and 
many  others  one  day  with  the  dead  but  life-like 
peacocks  in  the  cage.  I  went  to  see  Mr.  Gladness 
often ;  Mr.  Gladness  was  a  very  rich,  important 
gentleman ;  Mr.  Gladness  was  good  enough  to  me, 
though  older  people  did  not  seem  to  love  him  as  I 
did ;  he  let  me  see  the  rabbits  eat  bamboo-leaves. 
He  said  I  might  touch  them  if  I  liked.  I  was  very 
much  afraid  at  first,  but  Mr.  Gladness  assured  me 


BY  HIMSELF. 


they  wouldn't  bite-honestly  they  wouldn't  So  I 
ventured  to  put  out  my  hand.  They  limped  away 
rom  me  though,  keeping  their  noses  going  all  the 
time.  Don't  you  know  how  they  twitch  their 
noses?  Japanese  rabbits  do  that  too;  I  thought  it 
was  funny  !  Mr.  Gladness  had  in  his  yard  a  large 
pond,  where  he  kept  a  lot  of  big  goldfish;  Mr 
Tladness  had  also  in  his  beautiful  yard  a  little 
mountain  and  a  little  stream  with  a  little  bridge 
Mr  Gladness  had  a  great  many  servants;  every- 
body, bowing,  said  "yea,  yea  "  to  him,  while  he 
stood  straight  as  an  arrow. 

Miss  Chrysanthemum,  as  I  was  saying,  came,  or 

rather  was  brought  to  this  rich  merchant's  house 

he  having  found  her  one  cold  morning  at  his  door' 

tucked  nicely  in  a  basket,  like  little  Moses     Her 

poor  dear  mother,  like  his  mother,  some  have  said 

was  watching  from  a  hiding  place;  the  anxiety  of 

a  mother  seems  the  same  both  in  ancient  and  mod- 

ern times  and  all  the  world  over.    Now  the  rich 

man  had  no  child,  just  as  in  stories;  and  when  the 

crying  baby  stopped  and  smiled  at  him  through 

her  tears,  his  proud  old  heart  felt  infinitely  tender' 

e  adopted  her  at  that  instant  and  christened  her 

afterward    Chrysanthemum,   the    flower    of    that 

name  being  his  favorite  above  all  others  in  his 

garden. 

These  particulars  I  gleaned  from  the  neighbors- 
social  gossip  after  I  had  grownup;  Miss  Chrysan- 
themum was  already  a  young  lady  when  I  used  to 
go  to  Aunt  Otsune  in  childish  adoration.  I  remem- 
ber the  young  lady  took  me  one  winter's  evening 
beside  her  to  the  kotatsu,  the  heating  apparatus  I 
6 


82  A  JAPANESE  HOY. 

have  mentioned  in  connection  with  my  grand- 
father's house,  and  told  me  stories.  She  was  reared 
in  luxury,  had  everything  she  wanted  that  could 
be  gotten  with  money,  and  was  a  great  pet  of 
Aunty's,  who  regarded  her  as  her  own  child.  It 
was  not  surprising,  then,  that  Aunty  should  note 
with  deep  satisfaction  the  gentle  flutter  of  Miss 
Chrysanthemum's  maiden  heart  at  the  sight  of  a 
young  man ;  indeed,  she  seemed  in  the  eye  of  the 
world  to  take  more  interest  than  the  interested  par- 
ties themselves.  This  kitchen  romance  was  the 
pervading  theme  of  her  conversation ;  we  were  in 
duty  bound  to  hear  just  how  the  matter  stood  be- 
tween the  two,  with  her  opinions  as  to  the  pros- 
pect. The  whole  town  took  it  up  and  discussed  it 
variously;  some  sage  persons  shook  their  heads 
and  intimated  that  they  knew  a  certain  poor  fisher- 
woman  to  be  Miss  Chrysanthemum's  real  mother, 
and  that  they  had  all  along  their  own  misgivings 
concerning  the  young  lady's  future.  ' '  The  blood 
will  tell "  was  the  maxim  on  which  these  sapient  ob- 
servers took  their  stand,  and  they  talked  the  young 
man  over  as  if  he  were  an  arrant  fortune  hunter, 
when  I  fear  not  one  of  them  could  come  up  to  Mr. 
Prosperity  in  assiduity  and  honest  labor.  "The 
blood  will  tell,"  indeed,  that  a  daughter  of  a  friend- 
less, mistaken,  but  upright  woman  should  choose 
for  herself  a  sensible  man,  one  who  will  stick  to 
her  through  thick  and  thin,  as  we  shall  see 
presently. 

As  I  am  not  writing  a  love  story,  I  shall  not  give 
the  personal  appearances  of  my  fair  Chrysanthe- 
mum and  gentle  Prosperity,  nor  their  sayings  and 


BY  HIMSELF.  83 

doings.  Yet  I  do  see  perfectly,  even  at  this  dis 
tance  of  time  and  place,  the  picture  of  young  Mr. 
Prosperity  sitting  with  his  fellow  workers  at  his 
work,  in  the  workshop  on  the  rear  of  the  store, 
under  the  same  roof  with  the  kitchen  but  with  a 
hall-way  between.  Perhaps  he  is  putting  a  color 
on  the  sugared  commodities ;  he  does  it  with  a  flat 
brush,  taking  up  the  pieces  one  by  one,  then  he 
sends  a  box  of  them  to  the  next  man,  who  goes  over 
the  same,  staining  the  uncolored  portion  with 
another  tint.  He  looks  up  at  my  approach, 
smiles  a  welcome  and  resumes  the  work;  the 
others,  being  used  to  my  coming,  go  on  with  their 
job,  without  even  taking  as  much  trouble  as  the 
mere  act  of  raising  their  heads,  saying  indiffer- 
ently "  halloo !  "  to  their  busy  hands.  Mr.  Prosper- 
ity, I  remember,  gave  me  some  of  the  candy  he 
was  making  when  he  found  an  opportunity,  which 
went  farther  to  form  my  good  opinion  of  him  than 
any  other  act. 

Everything  went  on  pleasantly  with  the  young 
people  and  Aunty — very  pleasantly,  in  fact,  until 
the  pleasure  of  the  old  gentleman  came  to  be  con- 
sulted. Then  arose  an  insurmountable  difficulty : 
he  would  not  hear  of  the  match;  he  possessed 
wealth  and  in  consequence  proved  supercilious. 
His  wealth,  however,  was  but  recently  acquired ;  he 
himself  was  once  a  common  workman  in  a  candy 
store  on  the  fourth  block  of  the  same  street.  But 
he  would  not  have  anything  said  about  it;  he  sim- 
ply would  not  brook  the  idea  of  giving  his  daughter 
in  marriage  to  his  employee ;  he  foolishly  deemed 
it  below  his  dignity.  This  was  a  severe  blow 


84  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

to  Aunt  Otsune;  she  felt  her  career  balked  and 
frustrated;  the  young  couple  began  to  love  each 
other  much  more  than  before.  "  What  "would  this 
state  of  things  result  in?"  said  the  gossips  of  the 
town.  Reconciliation  of  the  huffy  old  man,  impos- 
sible !  Separation  of  the  affectionate  pair,  quite  as 
hard! 

Here  Aunt  Otsune  called  in  her  inventive  powers ; 
she  was  full  of  kind  honest  invention, — how  else 
could  she  have  carried  herself  in  the  battle  of  life 
so  far,  single  handed,  and  remain  a  favorite  with 
all  the  world?  She  took  Miss  Chrysanthemum 
and  Mr.  Prosperity  under  her  wing,  as  it  were, 
rented  a  comfortable  little  house  on  a  by-street  and 
installed  them  therein,  married.  She  liked  to  see 
them  happy  together,  and  have  them  take  care  of 
her  in  her  old  age ;  she  had  heretofore  been  lone 
and  helpless,  despite  her  cheerful  exertions.  They 
opened  a  small  candy  store,  falling  back  upon  their 
knowledge  of  the  trade ;  soon  there  came  to  them  a 
dear  little  babe.  Aunt  Otsune  rejoiced  at  the  little 
one's  advent ;  her  scheme  was  now  complete.  She 
bore  the  infant  in  her  arms  softly  arid  went  to  the 
door  of  her  former  employer.  Her  diplomacy  was 
to  give  the  cross  old  fellow  a  sight  of  the  lovely 
grandchild  and  thereby  work  a  miracle  in  his 
stony  heart,  surmising  at  the  same  time  that  time 
must  have  done  something  towards  mollifying  his 
obstinacy.  This  accomplished,  it  would  be  an  easy 
step  to  persuade  him  to  take  them  all  back  into  his 
favor.  Alas,  poor  faithful  soul!  it  was  but  a 
woman's  wisdom:  Mr.  Gladness  was  still  found 
inexorable, 


BY  HIMSELF.  85 

On  that  memorable  iiight  slowly  she  walked  into 
our  house  with  the  babe  in  her  arms,  and  sat  her- 
self down  heavily  by  the  dim,  papered  Japanese 
household  lamp.  For  some  time  she  remained 
silent  and  glanced  around  the  room  furtively;  to 
her  unspeakable  satisfaction  there  was  nobody 
there  beside  ourselves.  Then  the  mental  tension 
with  which  she  upheld  the  whole  weight  of  misery 
and  woe  gave  way,  and  she  burst  into  a  flood  of 
tears.  I  recollect  the  unusual  solemn  hush  of  the 
room,  the  serious  looks  of  the  company  and  the 
distracting  sobs  on  the  other  side  of  the  lamp ;  I 
recollect  my  becoming  unaccountably  sad,  too, 
and  looking  away  at  a  corner  in  my  effort  to 
refrain  from  tears ;  I  beheld  the  paper  god  pasted 
high  up  on  the  pillar  brown  with  age  and  smoke. 
When  Aunty  recovered  herself,  she  managed  to 
inform  us  how  she  had  been  received  by  Mr.  Glad- 
ness and  told  us  she  had  made  up  her  mind,  if  the 
young  people  were  willing,  to  move  to  one  of  the 
islands  in  the  Sound  where  she  was  sure  of  a  kind- 
lier reception.  So  the  kind  old  soul,  foiled  in  the 
last  of  her  struggles,  left  her  friends  at  Imabari  for 
the  simple  life  of  the  islanders.  At  intervals,  we 
had  intelligence  of  her  whereabouts,  but  as  years 
rolled  on  news  reached  us  no  more. 

I  have  given  this  account  of  Aunt  Otsune  some- 
what at  length,  because  I  felt  interested  in  reviv- 
ing her  half-forgotten  memory ;  and  I  have  entered 
upon  the  history  of  Miss  Chrysanthemum  and  Mr. 
Prosperity  in  order  to  show  to  the  people  of  this 
country,  who  are  misinformed  on  the  subject  of 
Japanese  marriage  and  believe  that  our  young  peo- 


86  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

pie  are,  in  all  cases,  matched  by  their  parents  and 
not  infrequently  to  those  whom  they  do  not  love, — 
in  order  to  show,  I  say,  to  these  misinformed 
people  by  an  actual  example  from  my  own  obser- 
vation, that  such  is  not  the  case,  and  that  our 
people  marry  for  love  of  each  other,  notwithstand- 
ing the  artificial  manners  of  our  society. 


BY  HIMSELF.  87 


CHAPTER  X. 

I  WAS  generally  happy  in  my  childish  days  in 
Japan.  I  cannot  put  my  finger  on  any  particular 
thing  as  my  chief  happiness,  but  I  think  holidays 
made  me  as  happy  as  anything.  We  have  a  num- 
ber of  holidays,  among  which  the  first  and  the 
greatest  is  New  Year's  Day. 

The  first  three  days  of  January !  I  shall  never 
forget  them.  But  like  most  celebrations  New  Year 
pleasure  must  be  chiefly  felt  in  a  few  preparatory 
days.  In  Japan  full  vigor  is  preserved  among  chil- 
dren for  Happy  New  Year ;  here  in  America  Merry 
Christmas,  with  its  Santa  Glaus  and  his  stocking- 
ful  of  presents,  takes  away  the  zest  from  children 
before  New  Year  comes.  The  merriment  of  the 
season  is  materially  heightened  by  the  making  of 
the  mochi.  The  mochi,  which  I  have  referred  to 
once  before,  is  a  glutinous  cake  made  of  rice ;  it  is 
as  peculiarly  indispensable  in  the  New  Year  feast 
as  is  turkey  in  the  New  England  Thanksgiving  din- 
ner. It  is  generally  no  larger  than  a  man's  palm, 
therefore  one  family  makes  a  great  number  of 
them.  Many  are  stuffed  with  the  an.  The  an  is 
not  necessarily  sweet;  some  people  like  it  flavored 
with  salt.  A  large  number  of  the  mochis  are  not 
stuffed ;  they  are  suffered  to  dry  and  harden,  so 


gg  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

that  they  can  be  stored  away  for  future  enjoy- 
ment. At  any  time  during  the  year  you  may  get 
them  out  and  steam  or  toast  them.  In  our  town 
there  are  men  who  make  it  their  business  to  visit 
houses  and  help  them  in  mochi-making.  Just 
before  New  Year  the  professional  mochi-makers 
work  hard  day  after  day.  They  could  not  always 
come  in  the  daytime  and  made  arrangements  to 
visit  us  in  the  early  morning.  Then  my  sisters 
and  I  could  hardly  go  to  sleep  in  the  great  antici- 
pation of  joy.  When  the  morning  came,  our 
house  was  thrown  open,  illuminated  (for  it  was 
vet  dark)  brightly  and  cheerfully,  and  the  whole 
household  were  up  doing  something  with  willing 
hand  and  heart.  I  cannot  describe  how  happy  I 
was  in  this  scene.  I  tried,  half  in  play,  to  help 
them  and  got  in  everybody's  way.  You  know 
the  holiday  feelings  are  very  difficult  to  reproduce 
with  pen  and  ink. 

Along  the  house  on  the  street  the  men  arranged 
a  row  of  small  earthen  cooking  stoves,  which  they 
had  brought  with  them,  each  carrying  two.  The 
mode  of  carrying  in  this  case,  as  well  as  in  the 
transportation  of  any  heavy  load,  is  to  use  the 
shoulder  as  fulcrum  and,  laying  on  it  an  elastic 
wooden  pole  from  whose  ends  hangs  the  burden, 
walk  in  steady  balance,  presenting  the  appearance 
of  a  pair  of  scales.  Over  the  stoves  were  placed 
vessels  of  boiling  water,  over  the  vessels  tubs  with 
holes  in  the  bottom  and  straw  covers  on  top,  in  the 
vessels  were  heaps  of  rice  washed  perfectly  white. 
The  rice  used  in  mochi-making  is  different  from 
ordinary  dinner  rice;  it  is  more  glutinous  when 


ST  HIMSELF.  89 

cooked  and  easily  made  into  paste ;  it  is  a  distinct 
variety  selected  in  the  beginning  for  the  express 
purpose.  The  stoves  are  short  hollow  cylinders, 
open  at  the  top  and  in  the  front  ;  the  top  receives 
the  bottom  of  the  vessel,  and  the  front  opening  or 
mouth  ejects  smoke  and  allows  the  feeding  of  fuel. 
They  seemed  on  this  occasion  to  blaze  more 
brightly;  we  children  went  out  and  watched  the 
dancing  flames;  they  made  our  faces  glow  with 
their  reflection. 

When  the  rice  was  steamed  long  enough,  it  was 
transferred  and  made  into  paste  in  an  utensil,  like 
which  I  have  seen  nothing  in  this  country.  It  is 
simply  a  stout  trunk  of  a  felled  tree  a  few  feet 
in  height  with  its  upper  end  scooped  out.  With  it 
is  a  cylindrical  block  with  a  handle,  a  sort  of 
pestle  to  press  and  strike  upon  the  steamed  rice. 
There  was  something  joyous  about  the  dull 
thumps  when  heard  in  the  neighborhood,  perhaps 
not  to  a  foreign  ear  but  to  one  brought  up  amongst 
customs  associated  with  New  Year  holidays.  And 
never  at  other  times  was  our  house  so  overflowing 
with  hilarity  as  at  this  climax  of  domestic  enjoy- 
ment. When  the  rice  lost  its  granular  appearance 
and  became  a  uniform  sticky  mass,  then  it  was 
placed  upon  a  large  board  spread  with  rice  flour. 
There  it  lay  steaming,  milk-white,  this  luxury  of 
New  Year,— luxurious  even  to  the  touch!  The 
entire  household  flocked  around  it  and  made 
numerous  round  cakes.  While  our  hands  were 
busy,  we  interchanged  many  innocent  jokes  and 
merry  laughs ;  the  old  people  gave  in  to  our  sway, 
displaying  a  quiet  humor  in  their  looks. 


00  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

We  set  up  the  New  Year  tree.  It  is  a  drooping 
willow  tree  thickly  studded  with  rice-paste  and 
hung  with  ornate  cotton  balls,  painted  cards,  etc. 
Throughout  the  month  of  January  it  is  to  be  seen 
in  the  parlor  of  every  house  nailed  against  the 
wall. 

After  nightfall  on  the  last  day  of  the  old  year  a 
curious  ceremony  is  performed.  The  worthy  head 
of  the  family  goes  the  round  of  his  house  with  a 
box  of  hard  burnt  beans.  Within  every  chamber 
he  stands  upright  and  throws  a  handful  of  the 
same,  exclaiming  at  the  top  of  his  voice, — "Wel- 
come Good  Luck !  Away  with  the  Devil !  "  Now, 
the  box  used  provisionally  for  a  receptacle  is  a 
rice  measure  called  masu,  which  sounds  like  the 
verb  meaning  increase ;  and  the  beans  are  mame. 
which  is  the  same  as  the  noun  meaning  health, 
although  written  and  accented  differently.  Put- 
ting them  together  we  have  a  supplication  in  a 
play  upon  words, — "Increase  health,"  or  "May 
health  increase ! "  Odd  and  fantastic  as  the 
notion  appears,  however,  it  is  a  hallowed  custom 
and  scrupulously  observed.  My  father  formerly 
performed  the  ceremony  in  our  house;  but  when 
my  eldest  brother  had  grown  up,  he  was  assigned  to 
the  office,  which  he  discharged  with  a  comic  grav- 
ity that  I  cannot  forget. 

The  Japanese  looks  upon  certain  periods — I  for- 
get which — of  his  life  as  evil  years.  To  avert  hover- 
ing ill  influences  or  to  "  drop  "  the  years  as  they  put 
it,  the  people  take  of  the  beans  as  many  as  their 
years,  put  them  in  paper  bags  together  with  a  few 
pence  and  drop  them  at  some  cross-roads,  taking 


BY  HIMSELF.  91 

care  not  to  be  seen.  In  this  manner  I  have  drop- 
ped several  of  my  earlier  bad  years ;  I  should  have 
been  wrecked  a  long  time  since,  for  life,  but  for 
the  bags  of  beans ! 

In  the  same  evening  tradesmen  desire  to  collect 
old  bills  and  clear  up  the  accounts  of  the  passing 
year ;  and  in  order  to  do  it  they  call  at  the  houses 
of  their  debtors,  lighting  their  way  with  lanterns 
which  bear  the  signs  of  their  commercial  establish- 
ments. So  general  is  this  idea,  and  so  customary 
has  this  proceeding  become  in  time,  that  everybody 
expects  it  as  a  matter  of  course  at  the  end  of  each 
year;  debtors,  too,  are  easily  dunned.  A  conse- 
quence is  one  of  the  grandest  displays  of  lanterns. 
What  a  delight  it  was  to  me  to  stand  before  my 
house  and  watch  the  countless  lights  move  up 
and  down  the  street!  When  I  was  older  I  was 
appointed  lantern-bearer  before  the  collector  for 
my  father,  who  instructed  his  man  to  give  me 
points,  incidentally,  in  business. 

The  next  morning  dawns,  and  the  first  day  of 
the  New  Year  is  with  us.  Everybody  seems 
happy,  kind-hearted  and  filled  with  better  feelings. 
Shopping  housewives,  grocers  and  hucksters  of  all 
sorts  of  holiday  market  goods  have  disappeared 
from  the  streets ;  the  change  is  like  that  of  Sunday 
morning  from  Saturday  afternoon  in  an  American 
city.  All  the  houses  are  carefully  swept  and  put 
in  good  order,  and  the  people  have  on  their  best 
apparel.  A  kind  of  arch  is  erected  in  front  of 
each  dwelling.  But  it  is  not  round,  it  is  square. 
Two  young  pine  trees  are  planted  for  the  pillars, 
and  cross-pieces  of  green  bamboo  are  tied  to  them. 


A  JAPANESE 


On  this  frame  work  are  placed  the  traditional  sim- 
ple ornaments;  straw  fringes,  sea-  weeds,  ferns,  a 
red  lobster-shell,  a  lemon,  dried  persimmons,  dried 
sardines  and  charcoal.  These  articles  stand  for 
many  auspicious  ideas;  reflect  a  moment  and  they 
will  come  home  clear  to  your  mind.  The  pines, 
bamboos,  sea-  weeds  and  ferns  are  evergreens,  fit 
emblems  of  constancy  ;  the  straw  fringes  are  for 
excluding  evil  agencies  —  the  lamb's  blood  on  the 
door;  the  lobster  by  its  bent  form  is  indicative  of 
old  age  or  long  life;  the  lemon  is  dsii-dai  —  "genera- 
tion after  generation  ;  "  the  dried  persimmons  are 
sweets  long  and  well  presei"ved  ;  the  sardines  from 
their  always  swimming  in  a  swarm  denote  the 
wish  for  a  large  family;  and  lastly,  the  stick  of 
charcoal  is  an  imperishable  substance. 

When  the  morning  sun  rises  glorioiidy  or  snow- 
flakes  happen  to  fall  (for  we  have  snow  in  Japan), 
children  leap  out  from  under  the  arches,  salute  one 
another  and  begin  to  indulge  in  outdoor  holiday 
games. 

To  speak  about  breakfast  may  be  trespassing 
upon  hospitality,  but  the  Japanese  New  Year 
breakfast  is  something  unique.  The  mochi  makes 
up  the  main  part.  The  unstuffed  rice-cakes  are 
cooked  with  various  articles;  potatoes,  fish,  tur- 
nips and  everything  palatable  from  land  and  sea 
is  found  with  them.  A  person  of  ordinary  capac- 
ity can  scarcely  take  more  than  a  few  bowlf  uls  of 
the  dish,  but  there  are  people  brave  enough  to 
dispatch  twenty  or  thirty  at  a  time  !  For  weeks 
after  whenever  idlei*s  of  the  town  come  together 
there  is  always  a  warm  discussion  concerning  their 


BY  HIMSELF.  93 

comparative  merits  in  this  respect.  I  have  noticed 
that  the  good  people  of  this  republic  also  look  upon 
Thanksgiving  and  Christinas  as  the  days  on  which 
to  indulge  their  best  appetite;  and  I  have  heard 
persons  telling  the  wonders  of  their  stomachs  and 
seeking  opinions  of  the  wise  men  around  them,  who 
are  likewise  dreaming  over  their  pipes  again  of 
the  turkeys,  chicken-pies  and  plum-puddings  that 
are  gone  by. 

As  the  day  advances,  good  towns-people  in 
decorous  antique  garb  appear  in  all  directions, 
making  New  Year  calls.  Upon  meeting  their 
acquaintances  they  have  not  much  to  say,  the 
chief  thing  being  to  keep  the  head  going  up  and 
down  with  great  formality, — a  bow  it  is  intended 
to  be,  yet  a  great  deal  more  than  that.  It  is  almost 
an  impossible  act  for  one  not  trained  so  to  do, 
unless  he  goes  at  it  with  the  spirit  of  martyrdom. 
Of  course,  the  parlor  reception  by  ladies  in  white 
is  something  unheard  of  in  the  far  East.  Ladies 
are  to  be  good  and  remain  in  the  back  parlor, 
except  when  their  presence  is  desired  by  the 
gentlemen  who  do  the  honor  of  receiving;  you 
often  detect  the  bright  eyes  directed  upon  you 
through  crannies. 

The  dinner  is  not  so  splendid  an  affair  as  the 
breakfast,  but  has  many  customary  dishes  to  be 
served.  The  fact  will  strangely  strike  the  reader, 
who  associates  in  his  mind  such  a  sumptuous  board 
as  that  of  Christmas  with  the  term  dinner.  In 
that  figurative  sense  in  which  we  frequently  use  it, 
it  must  properly  be  applied  to  the  breakfast.  I 
must  mention  here  that  in  the  New  Year  meals 


94  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

\ve  put  aside  our  crockery  ware  and  take  out  from 
the  store-room  wooden  bowls,  japanned  red  inside 
and  jet  black  outside  with  our  family  crest  in  gold. 
The  children's  are  rendered  more  attractive  with 
the  pictures  of  flying  cranes  on  the  covers,  and 
tortoises  with  wide-fringed  tails  among  the  waves 
on  the  exterior  of  the  bowls,  all  in  gold.  A  casual 
sight  of  them  at  other  times,  in  my  rummaging  for 
things,  was  sufficient  to  awake  in  me  a  pleasant 
train  of  thoughts  relative  to  the  holidays.  Oh,  and 
that  tremendous  big  fish,  I  must  tell  you  about  that ! 
—Every  family  provides  itself  for  New  Year  with  a 
huge  buri — Japanese  name  of  course,  I  am  igno- 
rant of  its  proper  zoological  term ;  I  obtained  my 
first  idea  of  the  whale  from  this  monstrous  fish.  It 
hangs  in  the  kitchen  from  one  of  the  rafters 
throughout  the  holidays ;  the  cook  cuts  meat  from 
it,  and  the  family  feasts  upon  it  until  it  is  reduced 
to  a  downright  skeleton.  My  impression  is  that 
the  fish  is  caught  in  some  of  the  provinces  border- 
ing on  the  Pacific  Ocean  (Imabari  looks  on  the 
inland  sea)  and  sent  to  our  town :  certain  it  is,  the 
article  we  procure  is  always  salted.  The  rush  for 
the  buri  in  the  market  before  New  Year  is  just  like 
the  turkey  bargaining  before  Thanksgiving  in  this 
country;  the  difference  is  that  the  buri  is  more 
expensive,  and  it  is  not  everybody  that  can  afford 
to  buy  one. 

Taking  advantage  of  the  last  evening's  cere- 
mony, in  the  course  of  the  day  female  beggars 
appear  in  the  mask  of  the  Goddess  Good  Luck,  and 
sing  and  dance  for  alms.  That  is  tolerable.  But  a 
host  more  of  strong  male  beggars,  personating  the 


BY  HIMSELF.  95 

devils  with  rattling  bamboo  bars  and  with  hid- 
eously painted  faces,  plant  themselves  before  the 
houses  and  demand  in  a  strident  authoritative 
voice  a  propitiation  with  hard  coin.  Some  of  them 
paint  themselves  with  cheap  red  paint,  represent- 
ing the  "red  devils;"  others  smear  themselves 
with  the  still  more  economical  scrapings  from  the 
sides  of  the  chimney,  becoming  thereby  the  "  black 
devils. "  The  idea  of  the  devils  of  different  colors 
came  from  the  Buddhist's  pictorial  representation 
of  Hell,  wherein  the  demons  are  seen  serving  out 
punishment  to  the  sinners, — throwing  them  into  a 
sulphurous  flame,  a  lake  of  blood,  a  huge  boiling 
caldron  and  to  dragon-snakes ;  giving  them  a  free 
ride  on  a  chariot  of  fire ;  driving  them  up  a  moun- 
tain beset  with  needles ;  pulling  out  the  tongues  of 
the  liars ;  mashing  the  bodies  as  you  do  potatoes ; 
and  so  forth.  The  pictures,  by  the  bye, with  many 
others  of  saints  and  martyrs,  are  the  same  in  na- 
ture as  the  religious  paintings  of  Rome  and  equally 
grand  and  magnificent.  The  bean  ceremony,  to 
conclude,  although  it  might  have  banished  imagi- 
nary devils,  after  all,  has  drawn  together  the  very 
next  morning  an  army  of  the  flesh-and-blood  devils 
that  want  to  eat  and  drink. 


96  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

AMONG  the  recreations  most  fondly  indulged  in 
on  the  New  Year  holidays  is  kite-flying.  This  is  so 
well  known  here  that  I  have  often  been  over- 
whelmed with  questions  regarding  it  by  little 
Americans.  Our  kites  are  mostly  rectangular, 
with  heroes  or  monsters  painted  on  them  in  most 
glaring  colors.  A  wind  instrument  looking  like  a 
bow  is  sometimes  fastened  to  the  kite,  and  when 
the  kite  is  in  the  air  the  wind  strikes  the  string  and 
makes  a  humming  noise.  At  a  kite  fight  the  com- 
batants bring  their  flying  kites  in  juxtaposition 
and  strive  to  cut  the  string  by  friction.  Now  and 
then  an  unfortunate,  hero  or  monster,  is  seen  tossed 
about  at  the  disposal  of  the  wind,  finding  its  fate 
upon  the  water,  the  tree-  tops,  or  I  know  not  where. 
At  the  height  of  kite-flying  even  those  with  more 
discretion  enter  into  the  full  spirit  of  the  young 
and  build  prodigious  kites.  I  have  actually  seen 
one  so  large  that,  when  flown  high  up  on  a  fair 
windy  day,  the  combined  efforts  of  several  men 
could  scarcely  hold  it.  It  was  a  hard-fought  tug- 
of-war ;  after  much  ado,  with  the  aid  of  wrestlers 
and  athletes,  I  remember,  the  monster  was  at  length 
secured  to  the  main  front  oaken  pillar  of  a  great 
building.  The  string  fastened  to  such  a  kite  is  a 


BY  HIMSELF.  97 

strong  twine  hundreds  of  yards  long,  yet  it  often 
gives  way.  And  to  fly  such  a  kite  on  the  streets  of 
a  city  is  next  to  an  impossibility ;  it  will  bump  hard 
at  houses  and  rake  down  the  tiles  (our  houses  are 
roofed  with  tiles)  over  the  heads  of  passers-by; 
for  which  reason,  it  is  always  taken  out  to  the 
open  country  and  afterwards  brought  into  town 
when  it  has  gone  well  up  in  the  air.  What  a  mass 
of  curious  children  surge  beside  the  men  who  hold 
the  kite  by  the  string  as  they  walk  home  ! 

I  have  sat  many  an  afternoon  after  school  whit- 
tling the  bamboo  frame  for  a  modest  kite.  It  was 
my  most  interesting  employment ;  my  father  calls 
me  into  another  room  to  run  on  an  errand  for  him ; 
I  hear  him  plainly,  but  pretend  otherwise  and  make 
him  call  repeatedly — ungrateful  son !  Upon  hear- 
ing him  approach  and  perceiving  longer  delay  to 
be  impossible,  I  break  away  from  the  agreeable  oc- 
cupation and  emerge  as  cheerfully  as  I  can,  "  Yes, 
sir,  father."  He  inquires  what  I  was  about,  re- 
proves me  for  not  answering  him  quickly  and  gives 
me  to  know  that  if  I  do  not  heed  his  behest  he  will 
surely  throw  my  kite  into  the  fire.  After  such  in 
terruptions,  however,  the  important  frame-work  is 
done.  Oh,  what  satisfaction  I  feel  over  it !  Then  I 
go  to  the  kitchen  and  wheedle  Osan  into  giving 
me  a  bit  of  boiled  rice,  which  I  make  into  paste  on 
a  piece  of  board  with  a  bamboo  spatula.  With  the 
paste  I  put  white  paper  on  the  frame  and  leave  it 
to  dry.  There  are  many  little  technical  points  in 
kite  construction,  but  those  I  refrain  from  entering 
into  in  detail.  When  it  is  dry,  I  write  on  the  kite 
confidentially  with  my  own  hand  some  appropriate 
7 


98  A  JAPANESE  HOY. 

word,  say,  Zephyr,  iu  lieu  of  picture.  I  now  tic 
the  string  and  try  its  flight ;  it  dashes  at  the  eaves 
this  way,  pitches  into  the  latticed  windows  that 
way,  twirls  in  mid-air  like  a  tumbler-pigeon,  and 
in  general  behaves  badly.  Thereupon  I  take  it 
down,  add  weight  to  the  lighter  side,  attach  a  tail 
and  do  all  to  insure  balance  and  equilibrium,  and, 
then  try  it  again. 

Since  coming  to  this  country,  the  request  has 
been  put  to  me  more  than  once  by  little  friends 
that  I  should  make  them  a  genuine  Japanese  kite. 
But  the  want  of  tenacious  paper  and  bamboo  has 
always  prevented  me  from  complying  with  their 
wish. 

As  I  write  on,  by  the  association  of  ideas  I  call 
to  mind  an  event  which  greatly  provoked  me.  I 
was  fond  of  poking  into  and  turning  over  old 
things  up  in  the  garret,  as  I  hinted  before,  or  I  had 
archaeological  taste,  to  give  it  a  dignified  name. 
One  day,  much  to  my  surprise,  I  came  upon  an  old 
kite  frame  perhaps  six  feet  by  five,  good  for 
further  use.  I  found  it  hidden  behind  a  worm- 
eaten  chest  of  drawers;  it  was  constructed,  I  dis- 
covered, when  my  uncle  was  a  boy ;  everybody  in 
the  house  had  forgotten  all  about  it.  I  was 
instantly  possessed  with  the  desire  to  boast  of  a  big 
kite,  now  that  the .  frame  was  ready ;  and  as  if  to 
help  out  my  plan,  some  one  recollected  that  the 
reel  of  string  that  went  with  the  kite  was  put  away 
in  one  of  the  drawers.  This  I  immediately  sought 
and  found.  These  relics  I  guarded  with  great  care 
until  a  visit  from  my  uncle,  who  resided  in  the 
same  town,  when  I  produced  them  and  got  him  to 


BF  HIMSELF.  99 

tell  me  about  his  kite.  I  could  not  have  done  a 
better  thing ;  his  old  playthings  before  him  put  my 
uncle  in  mind  of  his  boyhood ;  they  created  in  him 
the  wish  to  see  them  restored  once  more  to  their 
former  usefulness ;  and  he  promised  me  he  would 
attend  to  them  himself. 

Attend  to  them  himself  he  did  in  a  few  days,  tak- 
ing as  lively  an  interest  as  I  did.  Having  papered 
the  frame,  we  carried  it  to  a  man  who  painted 
show-bills.  He  painted  on  it  a  squatting  Daruma 
in  scarlet  canonical  robe,  holding  the  high-priest's 
mace,  a  staff  with  a  long  tuft  of  white  hair  at  one 
end,  while  the  white  untouched  margin  left  by  this 
large  figure  was  stained  blue.  It  was  a  glorious 
kite ;  the  picture  of  Daruma,  who  was  a  great  light 
of  Buddhism,  the  founder  of  a  new  sect,  who  sat 
and  thought  through  his  whole  life,  suffering  no 
disturbance  from  matters  temporal — hence  his 
papier-mdche  image  on  a  hemisphere  of  lead  for 
the  toy  "tumbler;"  Daruma,  I  started  to  say, 
looked  out  from  our  kite  with  a  pair  of  immense 
goggle  eyes,  shaded  by  prominent  shaggy  eye- 
brows; a  furrow  ran  down  on  either  cheek  from 
the  side  of  his  nose  toward  the  corners  of  his 
mouth;  large  Hindoostanee  ear-rings  hung  from 
the  enlarged  lobes  of  his  ears ;  and  I  may  here  add 
that,  notwithstanding  his  reputed  sedentary  habits, 
he  is  always  drawn  as  a  holy  man  of  strong  physi- 
cal features. 

So  far,  so  good.  My  uncle,  as  might  be  antici- 
pated, wanted  to  see  how  our  kite  would  fly. 
Accordingly,  we  got  a  big  boy  to  hold  it  up  for  us 
against  the  wind,  and  my  uncle  at  a  distance  held 


A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

the  string  ready  to  dash  at  a  run.  The  signal  was 
given,  and  away  my  uncle  ran,  and  up  rose  the 
kite.  Breathlessly  I  was  watching.  But  it  no 
sooner  rose  than  it  pitched  sidewise  and  struck  on 
the  spikes  upon  the  fences  of  the  Mayor's  house.  I 
lost  my  heart !  I  did  not  cry  just  yet ;  the  catas- 
trophe was  too  big  for  utterance  and  too  sudden ; 
there  was  no  time  to  weigh  the  calamity.  The 
men  pulled  at  the  kite,  which,  I  say,  had  stuck 
fast  on  the  pointed  black  wooden  bars  bristling 
unmannerly  in  all  possible  directions.  I  bore  the 
spikes  an  inveterate  enmity  ever  after,  till  one  day 
they  were  every  one  of  them  pulled  down  with  the 
house,  at  which  I  felt  extreme  satisfaction.  The 
tearing  noise  of  the  kite,  however,  rent  my  breast 
then ;  and  the  men,  being  persuaded  at  last  of  the 
futility  of  their  proceeding,  brought  forward  a  lad- 
der, and  my  uncle  mounted  it  deliberately.  I 
could  not  contain  myself  any  longer;  I  ran  into 
the  house,  threw  myself  on  the  floor  and  wept  bit- 
terly. After  that  I  turned  over  the  whole  affair  in 
my  mind  at  leisure,  lying  on  my  back,  studying 
the  ceiling  and  sucking  my  finger  in  baby  fashion. 
The  phantom  of  the  broken  kite  rose  before  me :  I 
swallowed  down  my  grief  with  difficulty.  Who 
brought  it  about?  Nobody  else  but  uncle;  yes,  if 
uncle  had  not  wished  to  try  the  kite  it  would  not 
have  happened.  I  whimpered  afresh  at  the  pain- 
ful thought ;  I  now  reproached  my  uncle  as  much 
as  I  formerly  thanked  him.  After  a  considerable 
lapse  of  time  my  uncle  came  in,  crestfallen,  with 
the  tattered  kite.  But  in  dudgeon  I  would  not 
speak  to  him  or  look  at  him ;  he  very  awkwardly 


HY  HIMSELF.  101 

endeavored  to  console  me  and  with  difficulty 
coaxed  me  to  accept  his  atonement  in  patching  the 
rents.  The  moisture  of  the  glue,  nevertheless, 
scattered  the  original  colors  and  disfigured  the 
beautiful  picture.  I  forget  how  I  forgave  him 
that. 

But  to  resume  the  holiday  games.  Boys  play  a 
sort  of  ball — the  "pass  and  catch"  part— with  a 
good-sized  dai-dai  (lemon) ;  we  call  it  dai-dai  rolling. 
We  give  each  other  the  "  grounder"  repeatedly,  so 
that  even  the  hard-rinded  Japanese  fruit  gets  rup- 
tured in  a  little  time;  then  our  business  is  to  beat 
about  for  a  supply  of  the  new  balls,  which  we  inva- 
riably accomplish  by  knocking  down  the  fruit 
from  the  unguarded  arches.  The  people  generally 
take  the  prank  in  good  part. 

Girls  play  out-of-doors  with  battledore  and 
shuttlecock;  they  also  play  with  cotton-balls, 
which  they  toss  with  their  dainty  hands  against 
hard  floors.  They  keep  the  ball  bounding  rhyth- 
mically between  the  palm  of  their  hand  and  the 
floor,  and  hum  songs  in  time  with  it. 

At  home  and  in  the  evening  we  play  cards  and 
other  games.  The  favorite  game  of  cards  consists 
in  giving  out  the  first  lines  of  couplets  and  en- 
deavoring to  pick  out  from  the  confusion  of  cards, 
in  competition  with  others  of  the  company,  the 
particular  cards  on  which  are  wintten  the  follow- 
ing lines ;  the  one  with  the  largest  number  of  cards 
in  the  end  is  declared  the  winner.  This  game  has 
the  commendable  feature  of  impressing  on  the 
mind  celebrated  poems;  it  is  not  merely  time 
thrown  away.  Japanese  poems,  I  remark  in  pass- 


102  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

ing,  are  short  and  pithy;  the  classic  "a  Hundred 
Poems  from  a  Hundred  Poets "  are  characteristic 
and  are  consequently  printed  for  the  purpose  of 
the  game.  The  selected  poems  of  the  To  dynasty, 
which  in  the  annals  [of  Chinese  literature  corre- 
spond to  the  English  Elizabethan  period.  I  mean 
in  development  and  not  in  chronology,  are  substi- 
tuted by  scholars  for  the  Japanese  poems.  We 
also  play  a  kind  of  parchesi  and  a  form  of  the 
game  of  authors,  but  whist,  poker,  casino,  euchre, 
cribbage,  etc.,  we  know  nothing  of.  Chess  and 
checkers  the  Japanese  are  expert  in,  but  they  are 
not  New  Year  games. 

Fireside  conversation,  kind  words  and  hearts 
constitute  the  quiet  enjoyment  and  sunshine  of  the 
holidays.  All  things  conspire  to  produce  in  us 
serene  and  tranquil  pleasure,  but  nothing  worth 
recording  occurs  in  the  remaining  days.  Some 
business-like  briskness  is  manifested  in  the  early 
hours  of  the  second  morning,  for  tradesmen  ob- 
serve the  ancient  custom  of  inaugurating  the  com- 
merce of  the  opening  year  and  give  out  presents  to 
their  customers. 

Later  in  the  spring — I  forget  the  exact  date— all 
the  straw  ornaments,  withering  wreaths  and  the 
like  used  in  the  decoration  are  brought  together 
and  burnt  up  with  religious  care  on  a  broad  sandy 
river  flat  just  beyond  the  town.  The  day  ap- 
pointed for  the  rite  is  another  gala-day  of  the 
calendar,  at  least  in  Imabari.  For  some  time  pre- 
vious to  the  occasion,  the  straw  relics  of  all  the 
houses  of  a  street  are  carefully  collected  in  one 
spot,  and  then  such  as  are  artists  exercise  inge 


KY  HIMSELF.  103 

nuity  to  produce  some  recognizable  shape  out  of 
the  heap  that  may  catch  the  eye  of  spectators,  on 
its  way  to  the  place  of  combustion.  Street  vies 
with  street  in  originality  in  fashioning  the  straw 
stack  and  takes  care  not  to  divulge  what  it  is  con- 
structing until  the  day  of  display,  then  it  ostenta- 
tiously raises  the  finished  work,  whatever  it  may 
be,  on  a  high  movable  platform  or  pedestal  on 
wheels,  which  takes  its  position  in  the  line  of  march 
with  those  of  the  other  streets.  The  whole  town  is 
curious  to  know  what  is  in  the  parade  and  rushes 
out  to  behold. 

I  recall  only  one  among  many  things  which  my 
own  street  produced  on  such  occasions ;  it  was  a 
military  cap  and  a  trumpet  joined  together.  In- 
numerable sheets  of  gilt  paper  were  wasted  in 
giving  the  monstrous  form  of  a  trumpet  the  ap- 
pearance of  bright,  shining  brass;  the  cap,  too, 
was  wonderfully  like  the  real  imported  thing. 
These  barbarian  outlandish  articles,  having  been 
adopted  by  the  Japanese  government  at  the  time, 
were  exciting  the  attention  and  comments  of  the 
people;  hence,  the  striking  reproduction  of  them 
on  a  greatly  magnified  scale  made  everybody  utter 
a  little  cry  of  surprise  and  admiration.  I  forget  to 
which  of  us  the  inspiration  came. 

The  pedestal  or  platform  has  two  large  massive 
iron  rings  in  front,  to  which  are  tied  stout  ropes : 
the  younger  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  street 
hang  together  in  two  rows  and  haul  the  deco- 
rated burden.  Song  and  chorus,  and  the  heavy 
wheels  creak  onward  a  short  distance,  then  stop : 
song  again  and  chorus;  then  another  pause. 


104  A  JAPANESE  BOY, 

Among  the  crowd  we  occasionally  meet  a  man  car- 
rying a  bamboo  stick,  one  end  of  which  is  split  and 
holds  half-a-dozen  hardened  mochis.  He  intends  to 
scorch  the  cakes  in  the  flames  of  the  relics  and, 
upon  returning  home,  to  divide  them  among  his 
family  and  eat  them  for  the  miraculous  power  they 
arc  then  believed  to  possess. 

This  is,  in  short,  the  manner  in  which  we  ob- 
serve and  end  our  great  national  holiday  of  New 
Year.  Of  late,  it  is  to  be  regretted,  many  of  the 
old  customs  are  omitted  by  the  people  who  have 
got  modern  notions  into  their  heads.  Innovations 
of  the  latter  days  not  very  desirable  or  in  good 
taste  are  fast  gaining  ground.  A  few  years  more, 
and,  I  fear,  the  neglect  of  time-honored  observances 
Avill  be  complete  in  Japan. 


BY  HIMSELF. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

WE  have  a  great  many  other  holidays ;  it  is  im- 
possible to  speak  of  them  all.  Simply  to  name 
some,  there  are  God  Fox's  day  on  the  second  of  the 
second  month ;  the  Feast  of  Dolls,  for  little  girls,  on 
the  third  of  the  third  month ;  the  Feast  of  Flags 
for  little  boys  on  the  fifth  of  the  fifth  month ;  the 
ablution  mass  in  the  sixth  month;  the  Tanabata 
(eve  of  the  seventh)  on  the  seventh  of  the  seventh 
month ;  the  day  of  chrysanthemum  flowers  and  the 
festival  of  Inoko  late  in  the  fall,  not  to  mention 
festivals  of  several  local  deities.  The  vital  impor- 
tance of  these  holidays  to  us  children  centered  in 
the  dainties  and  delicacies  with  which  our  mothers 
and  sisters  served  us  then  and  not  often  at  ordi- 
nary times.  We  enjoy  boiled  red  beans  and  rice 
on  the  second  of  February;  rice-flour  cakes 
wrapped  in  the  leaves  of  a  species  of  oak  called 
kashiwa  on  the  fifth  of  May;  rice-flour  cakes 
daubed  with  the  an  on  the  day  of  the  Buddhistic 
ceremony  of  ablution;  roast  and  boiled  chestnuts 
and  rice  and  chestnuts  on  the  ninth  of  September ; 
and  the  sake  on  almost  all  occasions,  but  with  a 
spray  of  peach  blossom  inserted  in  the  bottle  on 
the  third  of  March,  and  a  bunch  of  chrysanthe- 
mum flowers  on  the  chrysanthemum  day. 


100  .1  .JAPANESE  HOY. 

In  Tauabata  and  Inoko  the  boys  of  the  town 
used  to  club  together  on  payment  of  a  small  fee, 
the  biggest  among  them  presiding  over  their 
a  ITaira  by  common  consent.  Our  first  work  is  to 
canvass  such  houses  in  consecutive  order  as  have 
large  front  rooms,  soliciting  their  owners  to  loan 
us  the  room  for  a  few  days  for  a  temporary  club- 
house, free  of  charge.  And  when  we  are  given  by 
a  generous  man  the  use  of  his  house,  thither  we 
convey  our  common  property.  The  property  com- 
prises the  scroll  gods,  a  holy  mirror,  the  golden 
gohei  (a  sacred  brass  ornament),  a  pair  of  pewter 
sake  bottles,  splendid  curtains,  a  large  number  of 
the  sambo  (offering  stand  of  white  wood,  some- 
times varnished),  countless  Japanese  lanterns,  tim- 
ber and  board  ready  to  be  put  together  for  an  altar 
looking  like  a  staircase,  Chinese  crimson  felt  car- 
pets, several  drums  and  certain  kinds  of  bells. 
These  things  have  been  handed  down  to  us  by  suc- 
cessive generations  of  boys,  repaired  each  year 
and  additions  made  by  donations  or  by  "chipping 
in,"  and  all  nicely  packed  in  chests,  on  the  sides 
and  covers  of  which  we  read  the  names  of  some 
that  have  died,  and  of  others  that  are  yet  living 
though  well-nigh  to  the  grave.  The  boys  take 
good  care  of  the  old  heirlooms,  that  they  may 
transmit  them  without  injury  to  their  successors. 
The  older  boys  take  the  things  out  and  set  up  a 
place  of  worship;  on  the  days  of  festivity  the 
members  come  to  the  headquarters  with  their 
lunch-boxes  well  stocked.  We  assemble  not  to 
worship  really,  you  might  as  well  understand  now, 
but  to  have  a  good  time.  Fruits  and  cakes  have 


BY  HIMSELF.  10? 

been  taken  in  by  the  managers  from  the  wholesale 
merchants,  and  are  piled  up  in  pyramids  on  the 
samboes  upon  the  steps  of  the  altar;  they  are  to 
be  divided  equally  among  the  stockholders  after- 
wards. The  lanterns  are  lighted  brilliantly  at 
night ;  a  special  lantern  is  hoisted  on  a  very  high 
pole  planted  before  the  house  to  signify  our  quar- 
ters. 

At  Tanabata  we  march  through  the  streets  with 
green  bamboo  trees,  rending  the  air  with  certain 
shouts  and  beating  the  instruments,  and  upon 
meeting  the  boys  of  other  streets  have  a  scuffle. 
The  scene  is  a  confusion  of  bamboos  and  bits  of 
rainbow-colored  papers  which  arc  tied  plentifully 
to  the  branches.  After  a  hot  contest  we  come 
home  to  the  club,  eat  a  hearty  lunch  and  celebrate 
the  incidents  of  our  victory.  The  day  after  the 
festival  we  take  our  bamboos  to  the  sea  and  cast 
them  off  to  be  drifted  away  by  the  waves  and 
finally  up  to  the  Heavenly  Stream  or  the  Milky 
Way,  where  the  gods  may  read  our  wishes  written 
on  the  rainbow -colored  papers.  On  this  day  every- 
body goes  swimming,  because  the  sea-monkey  is 
handcuffed  that  can  lengthen  one  arm  enormously 
at  the  expense  of  the  other,  and  draws  in  and 
drowns  people,  especially  boys  who  go  swimming 
in  opposition  to  their  mothers'  remonstrance. 

At  Inoko  we  bring  forth  our  gorin.  A  gorin  is  a 
spherical  stone,  usually  granite,  with  an  iron  belt 
loose  in  a  groove  around  the  great  circumference ; 
the  belt  has  many  small  rings  through  it.  A  club 
of  boys  possesses  five  to  ten  gorins  of  various  sizes. 
To  the  rings  are  attached  ropes,  and  calling  at  the 


108  A  JAPAXtiSE  HOY. 

families  to  which  came  male  offspring  during  the 
year,  the  boys  utter  words  of  blessing  and  pound 
the  ground  by  pulling  up  and  down  the  solid  stone. 
After  a  series  of  thumps  a  depression  is  left  behind. 
We  hold  gorin  collisions  with  neighboring  powers. 
A  challenge  is  sent  to  other  clubs  to  meet  us  with 
their  best  gorin  on  neutral  ground  at  such  a  time, 
that  we  may  know  which  is  stronger.  The  war 
gorin  is  equipped  for  the  contest  with  a  network  of 
ropes,  exposing  a  portion  of  the  surface  that  shall 
deal  the  blow;  the  leading  boys  guide  it  in  the 
battle  by  several  strong  ropes.  Generally  in  the 
collision  more  noise  is  heard  than  the  clash ;  how- 
ever, not  rarely  the  contest  is  kept  up  until  one  or 
the  other  splits  through  the  core,  and  the  opposi- 
tion is  so  strong  as  to  cause  older  people  to  inter- 
fere in  the  affair,  because  it  infallibly  entails 
unpleasant  feeling  between  the  parties  and  a  scrim- 
mage at  all  times.  I  call  to  mind  that  our  club 
used  to  plume  itself  upon  the  strength  and  dura- 
bility of  its  gorins ;  no,  not  one  received  so  much 
as  a  crack,  albeit  many  and  severe  were  the  tests 
to  which  they  had  been  subjected. 

Besides  the  gorin  sports,  at  Inoko  we  get  up 
wrestling  matches.  On  the  yard  of  the  club-house 
we  build  a  circular  bank  of  clay  and  fill  the  inside 
with  sand;  in  this  all  the  members  contend  in 
practice.  Small  as  I  was,  I  did  not  like  to  be 
thought  out  of  fashion,  and  to  pay  for  my  uncalled- 
for  prowess  suffered  from  sores  and  bruises.  In  a 
body  we  visit  the  headquarters  of  the  other  clubs 
and  negotiate  the  matches,  which  take  place  imme- 
diately on  the  spot  in  full  view  of  both  parties. 


BY  HIMSELF.  109 

The  ceremony  of  ablution  is  chiefly  observed  by 
Shinto  priests.  (Shinto  is  the  native  faith,  holding 
up  the  sun  for  the  center  figure  of  worship  and 
eight  millions  of  spirits  besides.)  The  way  they 
observe  it  in  my  province  consists  in  setting  up  in 
the  temple-yard  three  large  hoops  of  the  sasaki 
tree  (sacred  to  Shintoism)  and  inviting  the  people 
to  pass  through  them.  The  hoops  are  supposed  to 
take  up  the  people's  sins  and  transgressions,  leav- 
ing them  clean  and  fit  for  the  further  grace  of  the 
gods.  Thus  loaded  with  the  earthly  corruptions  and 
loathsome  pollutions  of  man,  the  round  bands  of 
the  fresh,  green  trees,  thickly  stuck  with  zigzag 
white  paper  hangings,  at  the  end  of  the  day  are 
taken  to  running  water  and  washed  thoroughly  or 
more  commonly  committed  to  the  sea. 

At  about  the  same  time  Buddhist  priests  hold 
mass  for  dead  sinners.  The  different  sects  have 
different  notions.  My  family  were  formerly  pa- 
rishioners to  a  temple  of  the  Hokke  sect ;  therefore. 
I  best  remember  the  mass  as  observed  by  that  par- 
ticular denomination.  The  church  society  and  its 
officers  meet  in  the  vestry  to  take  action  in  the 
preparation  of  floating  lanterns.  These  are  hasty, 
rude  contrivances  which  the  active  of  the  parish- 
ioners volunteer  in  getting  up ;  it  does  not  require 
much  skill  in  carpentry  to  make  them,  but  it  takes 
time  to  make  so  many.  Look  at  one  :  an  odd 
piece  of  board  for  the  bottom,  two  split  bamboos 
bent  and  stuck  on  it  like  the  handle  of  a  basket  one 
across  the  other,  and  a  hood  of  paper  glued  round 
the  whole;  a  nail  in  the  center  holds  a  penny 


110  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

candle.  All  very  inartistic  indeed,  as  befits  their 
use,  as  we  shall  see  presently. 

On  the  mass  day  all  about  the  temple  are  strung 
up  an  untold  number  of  the  lanterns.  Now,  devout 
old  folks  and  young  come  in  streams  all  day  to  put 
up  prayers  for  their  beloved  dead,  and  those  so  in- 
clined buy  the  lanterns  for  the  purpose  of  light- 
ing the  way  for  the  departed.  The  goods  when 
paid  for  are  handed  over  by  the  presiding  elders, 
who  have  charge  of  the  sale,  to  the  priest  and 
assistant  priests ;  they  write  sutra  verses  on  them 
and  order  them  to  be  left  before  the  altar.  If 
business  is  good,  by  the  latter  part  of  the  even- 
ing the  entire  stock  is  disposed  of;  the  till  rattles 
with  money,  and  the  priests  are  in  good  cheer. 
Then  follows  a  great  chanting  and  beating  of 
drums,  and  after  prayers  have  been  said  once  for 
all,  the  lanterns  are  put  on  board  several  boats  and 
the  drums  and  cymbals  also  carried  to  enliven 
the  next  scene;  the  priests  and  committee  walk 
down  to  the  shore  slowly.  Things  being  placed 
aright,  out  they  pull  on  the  heaving  sea — the  in- 
coming tide  having  been  looked  to  beforehand,  so 
that  at  high  tide  the  lighted  lanterns  may  be  set 
afloat  and  go  drifting  at  their  will  with  the  falling 
flood. 

Ah,  they  are  gone,  the  skiffs !  We  discern  them 
no  more.  I  want  you  to  understand  that  it  is  a 
dark  night,  otherwise  my  picture  isn't  so  good,  al- 
though in  point  of  fact  the  moon  does  often  chance 
to  look  up  on  the  occasion.  And  the  moonlight 
on  the  swelling  tide  is  not  very  bad,  I  acknowl- 
edge, yet,  you  see,  I  wish  to  preserve  the  grand 


BY  HIMSELF.  HI 

effect  of  "fire  and  darkness."  So,  pray,  gentle 
reader,  indulge  my  fancy  this  time ;  I  won't  always 
ask  this.  Well,  it's  a  dark  night  then:  as  the 
boats  slip  out  of  our  sight  we  can  hear  the  lapping 
noise  that  comes  of  their  swaying  from  side  to 
side  caused  by  the  queer  Japanese  mode  of  sculling. 
Ere  long  we  cease  to  hear  it ;  the  vessels  are  well 
out  in  the  obscurity.  Do  we  not  see  anything  of 
them?  Not  quite.  The  lights  they  convey  show 
us  their  whereabouts.  We  are  all  this  while  on 
shore,  mind  you.  The  onset  of  water  seems  to 
take  uncommon  delight  in  driving  us  up,  chuck- 
ling to  itself  along  the  beach,  until  at  last  we  are 
crowded  into  a  narrow  strip  of  sand  with  the  rest 
of  the  spectators.  There !  it's  up  to  the  high-water- 
mark ;  we  won't  be  annoyed  any  longer.  Let's  sit 
down. 

While  we  watch,  ten  thousand  points  of  light  dot 
the  expanse ;  no  finer  illumination,  I  for  one,  ever 
expect  to  see  on  earth ;  and  soon  there  blazes  out  a 
great  ruddy  flame  from  the  chief  priest's  boat, 
amid  the  confused  echoes  of  prayers  on  all  the 
vessels.  That  is  the  end  of  it,  friends ;  sit  still  and 
look  on,  if  you  choose,— many  indeed  do  so — and 
observe  the  lights  recede  and  drift  away,  or  die 
out.  Of  these  some  never  return  and  are  believed 
to  have  gone  where  they  were  bidden,  others  and 
a  majority,  to  be  frank  with  you,  are  washed 
ashore  next  morning  shattered  into  fragments. 


112  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

IT  is  wonderful  how  the  memory  brings  up,  as  I 
write,  ten  thousand  irrelevant  trivialities, — delight- 
ful to  me,  nevertheless, — many  of  which  have  no 
claim  to  be  placed  here,  except  that  they  are  more 
or  less  related  to  the  temple.  Verily,  the  faculty  of 
memory  is  a  godsent  gift,  a  boon  of  solitary  hours. 

Our  temple  was  the  nearest  to  the  sea  of  the  row 
on  Temple  street,  which  I  referred  to  in  the  earlier 
portion  of  this  sketch.  The  head-priest  was  an  ami- 
able, gentle  person,  very  learned  they  say,  though 
giving  no  indication  of  being  such.  He  did  his 
duty,  to  be  sure,  in  sermons,  but  never  cared 
much  to  distinguish  himself  in  eloquence;  he 
would  rather  read  or  entertain  visitors  in  the  quiet 
of  his  tastefully  upholstered  zashiki  (guest  room), 
sipping  the  excellent  Uji  tea  and  viewing  the  ar- 
tistic beds  of  chrysanthemum  laid  out  with  great 
formality.  He  cultivated  exquisite  flowers;  the 
slender  stems  bent  under  the  large  flaunting  heads, 
and  the  priest-gardener  took  pity  and  provided 
them  with  firm  props;  he  was  as  attached  to  them 
as  a  father  to  his  children.  If  a  storm  by  night 
passed  over  them  and  he  discovered  them  in  the 
morning  sagged,  matted,  and  drenched  with  rain, 
his  compassion  knew  no  bounds. 


BY  HIMSELF.  H3 

It  must  be  confessed  that  at  times  his  fine  taste 
shaded  into  squeamishness ;  he  could  not  help  be- 
ing captious  about  his  servitor's  slipshod  manage- 
ment of  business,  and  yet  extremely  averse  was  he 
to  giving  his  own  opinion  utterance,  always  turn- 
ing aside  in  silent  disgust.  He  suffered  little 
children,  however,  nay,  loved  them ;  he  took  quite 
a  fancy  to  me,  calling  me  pet  names,  gladdening 
me  on  my  visits  with  goodies  and  a  bunch  of  chrys- 
anthemum flowers  from  his  garden,  and  always 
sending  me  home  safely  by  a  boy-priest.  This  last, 
found  vegetating  in  almost  every  temple,  is  a 
young  lad  of  poor  parentage  sent  thither  to  be  taken 
care  of  out  of  charity.  The  specimen  I  found  here 
was  a  poor  boy,  hence  happy;  he  was  sure  of  din- 
ner now  and  more  full  of  fun  than  well  became  his 
cloth. 

Once  he  frightened  me  half  to  death.  It  hap- 
pened in  this  way :  I  accompanied  some  one  of  my 
relatives  to  our  family  burying  ground  in  the 
temple  yard,  on  the  eve  of  the  annual  memorial  day 
for  the  dead,  when  every  family  sends  a  delegate 
to  the  tombs  and  invites  the  spirits  home.  The 
delegate  delivers  the  oral  message  with  profound 
respect  and  formality,  bowing  low  to  the  ground 
before  the  ancestral  tombstones  as  in  an  august 
presence.  Then  he  turns  about  and  asks  the  invis- 
ible to  get  on  his  back,  secures  him  with  both  hands 
behind  and  gravely  walks  homeward.  At  home,  in 
the  yard  on  a  bed  of  sand  taken  from  the  sea-shore 
a  fire  is  built  of  flax  stems,  according  to  religious 
custom.  This  is  called  the  "reception  fire."  The 
spirits  are  next  requested  to  alight  carefully  at  the 


114  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

high  home  altar  so  as  not  to  bruise  their  shanks. 
In  Japan  each  house  has  a  sacred  closet  wherein 
are  enshrined  images,  ancestral  tablets,  charms  and 
amulets,  where  cake  and  oranges,  flowers  and  in- 
cense are  offered,  and  before  which  the  family 
commemorate  the  days  of  their  ancestors'  death. 
This  elevated  place  is  called  the  "  Buddha's  shelf." 
Let  me  remark  here  that  the  Eastern  people  are  re- 
gardful of  their  dead;  they  do  not  slight  them 
because  they  are  dead.  Revile  as  you  may  and 
wrongly  call  it  "ancestor  worship," the  spirit  that 
prompts  the  act  is  entirely  praiseworthy.  Besides 
the  closet,  the  tops  of  cabinet,  cupboard  and  simi- 
lar pieces  of  household  furniture  are  turned  into 
the  depositories  of  Shinto  relics  and  paper  gods. 
These  "gods'  shelves"  are,  too,  carefully  served 
with  such  offerings  as  salt  fish,  sake,  and  light  in 
the  evening. 

But  I  am  wandering  from  the  main  narrative: 
my  talk  too  often  gallops  into  minor  tracks  unbri- 
dled. As  I  commenced  the  narration,  I  was  stoop- 
ing before  the  resting  places  of  my  grandfather  (of 
whose  quiet  departure  from  our  hearth,  by  the  bye, 
I  haven't  told  you),  of  my  grandmother  and  of  my 
sister  who  passed  on  before  I  had  ever  thought  of 
appearing.  Regarding  the  last  two  relatives  of 
mine,  having  never  seen  them  in  life,  I  was  in  the 
habit  of  asking  a  heap  of  questions  in  the  tiresome 
inquisitiveness  of  children.  My  mother  deigned  to 
tell  me,  especially  in  a  reminiscent  mood,  a  great 
deal  concerning  them,  without  minding  my  sisters, 
who  took  occasion  to  upbraid  me  merrily  on  this, 
my  singular  ignorance,  in  face  of  my  other  positive 


BY  JIIM.SELF.  115 

assertion  that  I  had  witnessed  my  mother's  wed- 
ding. Dear  mamma's  stories,  interesting  as  they 
are,  touching  as  they  do  not  a  little  on  the  pleas- 
ures, fashions  and  general  social  regime  of  Old 
Japan,  I  feel  obliged  to  omit.  For  the  present,  I 
must  go  on  with  my  own  story. 

I  was  stooping,  I  say,  before  the  tombs,  all 
about  being  silent  and  gloomy;  my  young  ani- 
mated imagination  dwelling  not  on  my  grand- 
father's goodness  but  011  old  wives'  awful  tales  of 
graveyards  and  dark  nights,  pale  apparitions  and 
grinning  skeletons;  and  my  whole  being  sur-' 
charged  with  fear,  requiring  but  the  shrill  wind 
to  make  my  hair  stand  on  end,  and  ready  to 
start  at  my  own  shadow,  when  suddenly  there 
came  a  moan  from  behind  the  adjoining  slabs,  and 
a  moment  later  a  ghost  shot  up  with  a  wild  shriek. 
I  drew  back  involuntarily  and  caught  my  breath, 
so  did  my  companion.  Then  the  ghost  shook  its 
gaunt  sides  and  burst  out  laughing  in  ghoulish  de- 
light. We  were  taken  aback,  but  soon  rallied 
courage  sufficiently  to  peer  at  the  merry  spook. 
How  provoking !  The  young  priest  stood  on  one  of 
the  tombstones,  with  the  broad  sleeve  of  his  monk- 
ish habiliment  over  his  face.  He  came  down  to  us 
quickly,  wearing  a  mischievous  smile,  passed  over 
the  whole  thing  as  a  huge  jest,  putting  in  a  slight 
excuse  for  causing  our  undue  alarm,  and  politely 
offered  his  service  in  carrying  the  flowers  and 
water-pail.  His  words  and-  manners  smoothed 
away  our  ruffled  temper  and  rendered  a  scolding 
impossible;  a  few  more  hours  made  it  look  too 
slight  to  report  to  the  head-priest.  In  the  main 


116  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

the  young  priest  had  the  best  of  us;  he  earned 
what  he  liked  better  than  a  good  dinner, — some 
capital  fun. 

And  in  this  connection,  here  comes  bounding 
toward  me  in  my  remembrance  our  pet  dog  Gem. 
I  will  relate  how  he  came  to  be  so  closely  associ- 
ated in  my  thought  with  the  grave ;  it  is  a  sad, 
good  story.  My  young  brother,  who  khad  a  boy's 
fondness  for  animal  pets  in  an  eminent  degree, 
got  him  from  another  boy  whose  dog  had  a  litter 
of  several  puppies.  When  my  brother  brought 
him  home  in  his  arms,  Gem  was  but  a  mass 
of  tender  flesh  covered  over  with  soft  down; 
he  had  just  been  weaned ;  consequently  by  night 
he  yelped,  and  cried  piteously  for  his  mother, 
under  the  piazza  where  my  brother  shielded 
him  from  the  paternal  eye.  My  father  was  not 
a  great  lover  of  pets:  the  cat  he  could  not  bear 
for  her  soft- voiced,  velvet-pawed  deceitfulness : 
the  dog  for  his  belligerent,  deep-mouthed  barks 
at  strangers  and  for  fear  of  his  becoming  mad 
in  summer  time ;  and  the  canary  bird — poor  thing 
—it  was  too  bad  that  people  should  deprive  it  of 
its  native  freedom. 

We  had  our  doubts,  therefore,  how  Gem  and 
papa  were  to  get  along.  However,  we  were  not 
without  a  ray  of  hope  that  in  time  they  would 
come  to  be  good  friends,  for  papa  had  once  shown 
that  he  did  not  altogether  lack  the  love  of  dumb 
animals.  It  was  when  I  began  to  love  the  little 
white  and  spotted  mice  penned  in  a  box  with  a 
glass  front  and  a  wheel  within.  My  father  suffered 
them  to  be  kept  in  the  house  out  of  his  love  for 


BY  HIMSELF.  117 

me ;  gradually  his  curiosity  was  awakened  to  take 
a  look  occasionally  at  what  his  son  exhibited  such 
absorbing  interest  in ;  next  he  became  a  keen  ad- 
mirer of  my  little  revelers, — their  gambols,  their 
assiduous  turning  of  the  wheel,  their  cunning  way 
of  holding  rice  grains,  and  their  house-keeping  in 
a  wad  of  cotton  in  the  drawer  beneath,  to  which 
they  could  descend  by  a  hole  in  the  floor  of  the 
box.  After  a  while  I  grew  negligent  about  them, 
and  then  it  was  my  father  who  fed  them  and  took 
care  of  them. 

On  the  whole,  he  bade  fair  to  come  to  a  better 
understanding  with  our  precious  Gem.  Neverthe- 
less, Gem — or  rather  my  young  brother — had 
trouble  with  him  during  his  canine  minority. 
When  the  puppy  had  grown  big,  true  to  our 
prophecy,  my  father  began  to  show  his  just  appre- 
ciation of  him.  Gem  would  sit  beside  him  on  his 
hind  legs  at  meal  times  and  watch  intently  the 
movements  of  the  chopsticks,  with  his  head  in- 
clined on  one  side  one  moment  and  on  the  other 
the  next,  letting  out  an  occasional  faint  guttural 
cooing  by  way  of  imploring  a  morsel.  Should 
there  haply  fall  from  the  table  an  unexpected  gift, 
say  a  sardine's  head,  Gem  with  the  utmost  alacrity 
would  pick  it  up  and  occupy  himself  for  a  few 
minutes,  then,  licking  his  chops  and  wagging  his 
tail,  he  would  turn  up  to  my  father  a  gaze  at  once 
thankful  for  what  was  given  and  hopeful  for 
more.  Little  Gem  took  a  fancy  to  grandpa,  and 
when  the  children  were  away  at  school,  he  would 
pay  him  a  visit  and  pitpat  into  his  room  uncere- 
moniously, like  one  of  the  grandchildren,  when  the 


118  A  JAPANESE  /toy. 

old  gentleman  was  dozing  over  the  past  at  the 
kotatsu  (fire-place).  This  Gem  of  ours  had  an  idea 
that  it  was  rude  to  surprise  one  in  his  meditation, 
and  thought  it  proper  to  stop  short  a  few  yards 
from  grandpa  and  utter  one  of  his  gutturals,  as 
much  as  to  say,  "How  do  you  do,  grandpa?" 
Whereat  our  good,  old  grandpa  was  obliged  to 
break  off  to  receive  his  fourfooted  visitor  cor- 
dially. 

A  time  came  when  grandpa  was  no  more,  and  a 
perfect  stillness  settled  on  our  home.  Dear  little 
Gem  could  ill  comprehend  what  all  the  house 
meant  and  went  about  as  happily  and  innocently 
as  before:  he  had  now  his  playmates  all  day  at 
home.  His  conduct  caused  us  to  think  how  glad 
we  should  be  to  know  no  grief,  and  to  such  a  place 
we  felt  sure  must  our  grandpa  have  gone.  Early 
every  morning  for  the  first  week  or  two  somebody 
from  the  house  repaired  to  the  church-yard  to  see 
that  things  were  right  and  to  put  up  prayers; 
once  or  twice  Gem  was  taken  along  for  company, 
and  since  then  he  counted  it  his  duty  to  attend  us 
to  the  temple.  My  father  and  I  would  get  up 
some  morning  on  this  errand,  and  no  sooner  had 
we  appeared  at  the  gate  than  Gem  uncurled  from 
his  comfortable  sleeping  posture,  rose  and  shook 
his  hair  and  looked  his  "  I  am  ready."  He  gener- 
ally paced  before  us,  but  frequently  tarried  behind 
to  salute  his  dog-neighbor  with  a  good  morning. 
Sometimes  he  would  course  sportively  away  from 
our  sight ;  we  whistled  loud  without  any  response ; 
but  knowing  he  could  find  his  way  back,  we  gave 
up  the  search  and  hastened  to  the  temple.  Upon 


BY  HIMSELF,  119 

our  arrival,  before  grandpa's  stone  sat  a  little  dog 
looking  out  on  the  alert.  Gem  received  us  in  the 
capacity  of  host  and  conducted  us  to  the  grave, 
saying  as  plainly  as  ever  dog  said,  "Don't  you 
see?  I  know  the  way." 

One  morning  we  rose  to  find  our  Gem  gone. 
Inquiries  revealed  him  lying  at  a  short  distance 
from  the  gate,  with  his  fur  dyed  in  his  own  life- 
blood.  He  was  dead !  Whether  a  prowling,  fero- 
cious animal  had  fallen  on  him  in  the  night,  or  a 
cruel  human  brute  had  inflicted  the  wounds  with- 
out just  cause,  we  could  not  ascertain.  My  young 
brother  took  Gem's  cruel  death  to  heart;  my 
father,  too,  felt  deeply  the  sad  fate  of  the  now-to- 
him  priceless  pet.  And  here  naturally  ends  the 
story  of  our  dog. 

In  our  temple,  as  well  as  in  those  of  all  other  de* 
nominations,  the  birthday  of  the  great  common 
teacher  Shaka  (Gautama)  is  observed.  It  falls  on 
the  eighth,  I  think,  of  April ;  the  observance  is  sim- 
ple and  quiet  except  for  the  distribution  of  ubuyu. 
In  the  East,  when  a  child  is  born  the  midwife  im- 
mediately plunges  it  in  a  tub  of  warm  water.  This 
water  is  called  ubuyu  or  first  bath.  On  the  eighth 
of  April,  in  every  temple  a  bronze  basin  is  placed 
before  the  altar ;  in  the  center  of  the  basin  stands 
a  bronze  image  of  the  Infant  Shaka ;  his  attitude 
is  much  like  that  of  the  Boy  Christ  pictured  in  the 
illustrated  Bibles  and  the  Sunday-school  cards  as 
teaching  a  group  of  the  scribes.  The  myth  relates 
a  marvelous  account  of  his  rising  upright  in  the 
bath-tub  and  telling  his  astonished  parents  and  old 
midwife  whence  he  came,  pointing  to  heaven,  and 


120  ^  JAPANESE  BOY. 

what  his  mission  on  earth  was.  His  exact  words 
are  recorded  in  the  Buddhist's  scriptures. 

The  bronze  vessel  is  filled  with  a  decoction  of  a 
certain  dried  herb  whose  taste  resembles  liquorice. 
The  drink  is  popularly  known  as  the  "  sweet  tea." 
The  worshiper  pours  the  liquid  over  the  idol  with 
a  small  dipper  and  then  sips  a  little  of  the  same, 
numbling  some  devotional  words. 

The  excitement  of  the  day  consists  in  the  chil- 
dren's running  to  the  temples,  during  the  early 
part  of  the  morning,  with  bottles  for  the  sweet  tea 
or  the  ubuyu,  as  it  is  called  in  this  instance.  In 
the  temple  kitchen  the  cook  has  boiled  gallons  and 
gallons  of  it,  and  from  the  dawn  that  functionary 
is  prepared  for  the  hubbub  and  the  hard  task  of 
dispensing  it  expeditiously  to  the  throng.  As  the 
holiday  comes  in  the  same  season  of  the  year  as 
Easter,  the  floral  decoration  of  the  temples  are 
beautiful;  the  bronze  roof  above  the  basin  and 
image  is  always  artistically  covered  over  with  a 
quantity  of  a  native  flower  named  genge",  which  the 
botanist  may  classify  under  the  genus  Trifolium, 
if  I  may  trust  my  early  observation.  The  flowers 
literally  color  the  fields  pink  in  the  spring. 


HIMSELF.  121 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

IN  describing  a  distant  view  of  Imabari  I  made 
mention  of  a  sea-god's  shrine  jutting  out  into  the 
sea:  the  festival  of  that  god  as  well  as  of  one  situ- 
ated on  the  harbor  and  of  another  on  the  bank  of 
a  river  takes  place  in  the  summer.  The  people  go 
worshiping  in  the  evening.  A  myriad  of  lights 
twinkle  in  the  air  and  are  reflected  on  the  water 
below;  refreshment  stands  line  the  approaches  to 
the  shrine,  and  their  vociferous  proprietors  assert 
their  articles  to  be  the  very  best ;  the  crackers  go 
off  like  pop-corn  and  scintillating  fireworks  dart 
upward  now  here,  now  there  and  everywhere, 
ending  in  resplendent  showers  of  sparks;  drums 
are  beating  incessantly;  the  people  jostle  each 
other  in  getting  on  and  off  the  steps  of  the  shrine ; 
along  the  beach  are  seated  a  multitude  cooling  in 
the  breeze,  the  children  amusing  themselves  by 
digging  pits  in  the  sand  and  making  ducks  and 
drakes  upon  the  water.  These  are  the  salient 
features  of  the  midsummer  nights'  festivities.  The 
last  but  not  the  least  attraction  is  the  reviving 
breeze  along  the  shore ;  the  worshipers  generally  go 
through  the  offering  of  pennies,  clapping  of  hands, 
bowing  and  murmuring  of  prescribed,  short  pray- 
ers as  hastily  as  practicable,  that  they  may  have 
more  time  on  the  beach. 


122  A  JAPANESE  EOT. 

On  the  fifteenth  of  August  a  great  festival  takes 
place  every  year  in  my  native  town.  It  is  in 
honor  of  a  patron  deity.  Everybody  is  up  with 
the  dawn,  children  especially  are  up  ever  so  early 
in  the  morning.  Paper  lanterns  hoisted  high  in 
the  air  on  long  bamboo  sticks  are  moving  toward 
the  shrine.  It  is  yet  dark,  but  the  people  forget 
sleepiness  in  the  bracing  air  of  the  daybreak  and 
in  the  expected  joy.  Every  store  is  cleared  of  its 
merchandise  and  has  a  temporary  home-shrine 
erected,  the  god  being  a  scroll  with  the  deity's 
name  written  on  it.  Two  earthen  bottles  of  sake 
are  invariably  offered. 

When  the  day  is  fully  come,  the  procession 
starts  from  the  permanent  abode  of  the  gods.  A 
huge  drum  comes  foremost,  then  a  number  of  men 
in  red  masks  with  peaked  noses,  representing 
fabulous  servants  of  the  gods.  Then  come  two 
portable  shrines  built  like  a  sedan  chair,  and  the 
rear  is  brought  up  by  yagura-daiko.  This  last  is  a 
large  frame-work  of  varnished  wood  carried  by 
men.  On  the  top  of  it  a  large  bass-drum  is  placed, 
and  with  four  boys  around  it.  The  boys  are 
di'essed  in  fancy  costumes  and  beat  time  for  the 
songs  of  the  men  below.  The  men  are  all  dressed 
in  white  and  seem  at  first  to  keep  the  presence  of 
their  gods  in  mind;  but  soon  they  get  drunk, 
being  treated  with  wine  in  every  house,  and  spat- 
ter their  garments  with  mud. 

As  the  shrines  pass,  the  men  get  into  the  houses, 
seize  the  earthen  bottles  of  sake  and  pour  the  con- 
tents over  them.  These  men  also  get  tipsy  and 
treat  the  beautiful  shrines  rudely,  turning  them 


BY  HIMSELF.  123 

wildly  and  throwing  them  hard  on  the  ground ;  so 
that,  at  the  end  of  the  day,  there  is  nothing  left  of 
them  but  their  trunks.  This  rude  usage  became 
an  established  custom,  and  the  portable  shrines 
are  built  very  strong. 

A  few  days  previous  to  the  festival,  boys  prepare 
for  it  by  constructing  jumonji.  Two  slender 
elastic  timbers  are  tied  together  in  the  form  of  a 
cross ;  one  boy  mounts  it,  and  his  comrades  lift 
him  up  by  applying  their  shoulders  to  the  four 
ends.  They  march  up  and  down  the  streets,  sing- 
ing festal  songs,  and  challenge  boys  of  other  streets 
to  come  forth  and  have  a  "  rush." 

Not  far  from  my  native  town  there  stands  a 
high  peak  called  Stone-hammer.  It  is  customary 
for  older  boys  to  scale  the  lofty  mountain  and  pay 
tribute  to  the  deity  on  the  top  of  it.  They  get 
somebody  who  has  been  there  before  for  their 
leader.  The  preparation,  for  the  holy  hazardous 
journey  is  rigorous.  They  bathe  in  cold  water  for 
months  previously,  live  on  plain  diet,  and  pass  the 
time  in  prayers  and  penances.  Were  their  hearts 
and  bodies  unclean,  it  is  reported  that,  on  their 
ascent  to  the  shrine,  the  gods'  messengers — crea- 
tures half  man,  half  eagle— would  grasp  them  by 
the  hair  and  fly  away  among  the  clouds  and  often 
kill  them  by  letting  them  fall  upon  the  crags  and 
down  into  the  valleys. 

When  a  set  of  the  hardy  youths  start  out  for  the 
venturesome  pilgrimage,  they  are  dressed  in  white 
cotton  clothes,  shod  with  straw  sandals,  and  have 
their  long  hair  thoroughly  washed  and  hanging 
loose.  Each  carries  a  pole  with  a  tablet  nailed  on 


124  •'  -JAPANESE  BOY. 

one  end,  on  which  is  written  the  name  of  the 
mountain  god.  They  shout  a  short  prayer  in 
unison,  blowing  a  horn  at  intervals.  My  elder 
brother  who  went  with  one  of  these  bands  told  me 
that  the  journey  is  very  toilsome  and  dangerous. 
There  are  three  chains  to  help  in  climbing  three 
perpendicular  heights.  At  times  he  was  above  the 
clouds,  heard  the  peals  of  thunder  beneath  his  feet 
and  felt  extremely  cold.  The  leader  sometimes 
holds  a  wayward  youth  on  the  verge  of  a  precipice 
by  way  of  discipline  and  demands  whether  he  will 
reform  or  whether  his  body  shall  be  cast  into  the 
gorge  below. 

The  pilgrims  bring  home  for  souvenirs  the  leaves 
and  branches  of  sacred  trees  and  distribute  them 
among  their  friends  and  relatives.  The  friends 
and  relatives,  for  their  part,  wait  for  them  at  the 
outskirts  of  the  town.  At  an  appointed  hour  the 
spreads  are  awaiting  the  weary  worshipers.  Lit- 
tle brothers  and  sisters  strain  their  ears  to  catch 
the  faintest  echoes  of  the  horns  and  shouts.  When 
the  youthful  travelers  are  back  and  fully  estab- 
lished again  in  their  homes,  marvelous  are  the 
stories  that  they  deal  out  to  their  friends. 

I  have  been  consuming  a  good  deal  of  time  and 
space  in  describing  amusements  and  holidays ;  it  is 
high  time  to  revert  to  studies.  I  had  been  going  to 
school  all  this  time.  The  spirit  of  rivalry  at  school 
was  fostered  to  such  an  extent  that  we  felt  obliged 
to  go  to  the  teachers  in  the  evenings  for  private 
instruction.  The  teacher  sits  with  a  small,  low 
table  before  and  an  andon  beside  him.  The  andon 
is  the  native  lamp,  cylindrical  in  shape,  perhaps 


BY  HIMSELF.  125 

five  feet  in  height  and  a  foot  in  diameter;  the 
frame  is  made  of  light  wood,  and  rice-paper  is 
pasted  round  it.  In  the  inside  is  suspended  a  brass 
saucer,  sometimes  swinging  from  a  cross-piece  at 
the  top  and  sometimes  resting  on  a  cross-bar  in  the 
middle ;  the  vessel  holds  the  rush-wick  and  veget- 
able oil  extracted  from  the  seed  of  a  Crucifer. 
The  andon  gives  but  feeble  light  and  is  now  entirely 
displaced  by  the  kerosene  lamp.  In  lighting  a 
lamp,  prior  to  the  importation  of  matches,  we 
struck  sparks  with  flint  and  steel  on  a  material 
inflammable  as  gun  cotton,  called  nikusa,  and  from 
it  secured  light  with  sulphur-tipped  shavings  called 
tsukegi  (lighting-chips). 

Close  to  the  andon  the  pupils,  one  at  a  time,  in 
the  order  of  their  arrival,  bring  their  books  and  sit 
vis-a-vis  with  the  teacher.  The  latter  first  hears 
the  pupil  read  the  last  lesson  and  then,  after  it  has 
been  thoroughly  reviewed,  reads  for  him  the  next 
lesson.  He  does  it  looking  at  the  pupil's  book  from 
the  top ;  the  learner  follows  him  aloud,  pointing  out 
every  word  he  reads  with  a  stick.  This  is 
repeated  until  the  scholar  has  nearly  learned  the 
text.  The  scholar  then  returns  home  to  go  over 
the  lesson  by  himself.  In  this  manner  I  have  torn 
my  Japanese  and  Chinese  authors,  just  as  an 
American  boy  blots  his  Caesar  and  Virgil ;  and  cer- 
tain passages  come  up  even  now  as  spontaneously 
as  the  translation  of  ' '  Gallia  est  omnis  divisa  in 
partes  tres." 

In  school  an  examination  was  held  at  the  end  of 
each  month ;  how  hard  we  used  to  work  for  it !  It 
decided  one's  standing  in  class,  and  all  through  the 


126  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

following  mouth  he  had  to  remain  in  a  given  seat. 
Everybody  wished  to  be  at  the  head  and  that  bred 
strong  emulation.  The  night  before  the  examina- 
tion I  would  study  and  read  aloud  all  the  evening ; 
as  it  became  late  my  eyelids  tended  to  droop  and 
my  voice  to  falter ;  my  father  would  bid  me  not  to 
be  over-anxious  and  retire.  The  next  morning  he 
would  wake  me  early  in  compliance  with  my 
request,  and  light  me  a  lamp  to  study  by.  It  was 
a  bad  habit,  I  grant ;  but  if  I  work  half  as  conscien- 
tiously now  as  I  did  then  I  shall  be  the  wiser  for  it. 
My  class  was  composed  of  about  six  members; 
we  met  in  each  other's  houses  outside  of  school 
hours  to  go  over  our  reviews  together.  One  of  the 
boys  was  a  carpenter's  son  and  possessed  with  a 
mechanical  craze.  Whenever  we  gathered  in  his 
house  he  would  offer,  unsolicited,  to  explain  and 
exhibit  a  gimcrack  he  had  made  with  his  father's 
tools,  and  we  did  scarcely  any  studying.  Another 
of  our  schoolmates  was  a  farmer's  son,  a  big  shame- 
faced lad  sent  to  our  beloved  master's  to  be  edu- 
cated in  the  city;  he  boarded  with  him.  Country- 
fellow  as  we  called  him,  he  acquired  his  preceptor's 
hand  in  writing  so  well  that  nobody  in  school 
chose  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  him  on  the  question  of 
brush  handling.  But  no  mortal  man  is  without  a 
peccadillo — our  boy  was  always  observed  to  be 
moving  his  jaws  and  chewing  more  candies  than 
were  good  for  him.  The  third  was  a  staid  drug- 
gist's son,  sedate  as  his  father  and  as  particular  in 
trifling  matters;  he  was  "awfully  smart,"  as  the 
phrase  is,  in  his  studies,  having  pursued  them  con- 
scientiously ;  and  besides,  he  belonged  as  a  matter 


BY  HIMSELF.  12 T 

of  course  to  the  category  of  "  good  boys."  I  used 
to  sleep  with  him  in  his  house  sometimes  and  study 
arithmetic  with  him. 

Here  parenthetically  I  must  describe  the  Japan- 
ese bed.  It  is  a  very  simple  affair :  a  thick  quilt 
is  taken  out  of  a  closet  and  spread  directly  on  the 
floor;  you  lie  down  on  it  and  pull  another  quilt 
over  yourself,  and  you  have  the  bed.  There  is  no 
bedstead;  therefore,  fleas  have  a  picnic  at  your 
expense  if  the  room  is  not  well  swept.  In  the 
morning  you  fold  the  quilts  and  put  them  back  in 
the  closet,  and  space  is  given  for  the  day.  Our 
pillow  is  no  comfort  to  a  weary  head,  it  being  sim- 
ply a  hard  block  of  wood ;  often  it  is  a  box  with 
a  drawer  at  the  end.  The  use  of  this  kind  of  pil- 
low or  support  was  formerly  imperative  for  the 
men  and  is  still  to  the  women  for  the  protection  of 
the  head-dress  from  ruin  and  the  bedclothes  from 
the  bandoline.  The  sterner  sex  of  our  population 
now-a-days  crop  their  hair  after  the  fashion  of  their 
European  brothers,  and  have  in  great  part  given 
up  the  wooden  block  for  a  soft  pillow. 

My  schooling  was  continued  for  some  time  with 
satisfactory  results,  and  I  advanced  grade  after 
grade  well-nigh  to  the  end  of  the  common  school 
instruction,  when  my  father  saw  fit  to  remove  me 
and  put  me  in  a  store  so  that  I  could  be  a  credit  to 
myself  as  a  business-man's  son.  I  was  an  appren- 
tice in  two  trades  at  different  times  and  yet  unset- 
tled in  mind  and  anxious  to  go  back  to  school. 
I  might  go  on  telling  all  about  the  period  of  my 
apprenticeship,  and  things  I  learned  and  people  I 
observed  during  that  time ;  how  I  finally  carried 


128  A  JAPANESE  BOY. 

the  day  and  returned  to  my  studies ;  how  I  studied 
Chinese  and  how  I  struck  out  in  English;  how 
I  went  to  Kioto  and  struggled  through  five  years' 
academic  training;  and  how  a  few  years  ago  I 
borrowed  money  and  sailed  for  America.  But 
that  would  be  writing  a  real  autobiography,  which 
would  be  disagreeable  to  me  as  well  as  distasteful 
to  the  reader.  In  the  story  told  so  far  I  ought  to 
have,  perhaps,  prudently  suppressed  everything 
personal  and  brought  forward  only  those  experi- 
ences that  the  generality  of  Japanese  boys  arc 
destined  to  undergo.  Neither  have  I  exhausted  by 
any  means  the  incidents  of  my  own  childhood ;  at 
this  moment  I  am  conscious  of  things  of  more 
importance  than  those  set  down  on  the  foregoing 
pages  welling  up  in  the  fountain  of  memory.  But 
I  have  written  enough  to  try  the  patience  of  my 
indulgent  reader,  and  I  myself  have  grown  weary 
of  my  own  performance ;  it  is  therefore  excusable. 
I  hope,  to  draw  this  narrative  abruptly  to  an 

END. 


A  "\  ''*'  "••     i 


